Theatre of War: Terrain Visualisation Gouache and watercolour on paper 56 x 76 cm 2020
Looks like I am developing a series of Theatre of War paintings.
This new painting called Theatre of War: Terrain Visualisation is linked to another recent painting and post called Theatre of War . And, I have a third painting ready to share and write about soon too. Plus a few more sheets of watercolour paper in various stages of preparation.
Theatre of War: Terrain Visualisation again references the notion of 'Theatre of War' raised by General Carl von Clausewitz's in his famous book On War. However, It is clear that the contemporary 'theatre of war' is very different to Clauswitz's late eighteenth/early nineteenth situation. Despite this, the term 'theatre of war' provides an interesting way to think about contemporary war waged not only in physical landscapes, but in discrete 'landscapes' of digital and cyber worlds. The physical and discrete merge, however, with the use of signal enabled, digital and cyber supported, militarised technologies such as air, land and sea-based robots and drones.
In Theatre of War: Terrain Visualisation I invite viewers to fly, in their imaginations, beyond and around proliferating drones. I have painted different kinds of airborne drones against a visual parody of computer generated terrain visualisation graphics. These graphics map physical terrain in ways that can be 'read' by digital, machine learning or AI systems. The aerial perspective reveals a stage-like strip cutting across an ambiguous landscape. But, is the viewer above or below this strip, this 'stage' in the contemporary 'theatre of war'?
Regular readers know that I will have more to say, but I will leave it here. I have started a PhD [formal and creative practice] and need to keep some thoughts for my thesis!
Kathryn
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