Visualising Threat

Conference presentation by Shona Illingworth and Anthony Downey, at Investigating the Kill Cloud, Disruption Network Institute, Berlin

We increasingly live in a contemporary global (dis)order defined by aerial forms of hyper-surveillance. In the shadow of physical and psychological threats, indefinite aerial surveillance, sustained bombardment, and the routine deployment of Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV), entire populations now live under conditions of unrelenting anxiety. Given the degree to which these systems are consistently powered and maintained by Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is a profound lack of transparency when it comes to understanding the fatal interlocking of global surveillance technologies and automated targeting networks. Throughout the following conversation, Shona Illingworth and Anthony Downey will address these concerns through a discussion of their ongoing work on the Airspace Tribunal.

Established by Illingworth and human rights lawyer Nick Grief in 2018, the Airspace Tribunal is an international people’s tribunal that was formed to consider, and continues to develop, the case for and against a proposed new human right to live without physical or psychological threat from above. Focusing on Illingworth’s related artwork, Topologies of Air, and Downey’s research into predictive AI and pre-emptive warfare, they will explore two interrelated questions: how can we more effectively deploy creative practices to critically address the weaponization of AI and, through incorporating the respective fields of global security, human rights, and trauma studies, how can post-disciplinary research in the arts, humanities, and social sciences more effectively engage with lived experience as an integral part of these debates.