AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE: A METAPHOR

Australian Landscape - A Metaphor Oil on linen 61 x 66 cm 2021

As I write this the world is in the grip of the COVID19 pandemic. Mutations of the virus pose further threats. In Australia slow vaccine roll outs have placed our population in a vulnerable position. Despite having time, due to quite good pandemic management in 2020, authorities failed to secure enough vaccines, plan for distribution, formulate public education activities, foresee virus mutations as a threat and resolve weaknesses in quarantine arrangements. 

IMAGINATION

The lack of imagination in our political class [around the world] demonstrates diminished capacities to learn from history [even recent histories], to understand a globalised world, and to adopt a sophisticated mix of science and social science-based responses to the pandemic. A lack of imagination reveals poor capacities of simultaneously accounting for macro and micro concerns.

What if circumstance get out of hand as people become more frustrated and actions are increasingly politicised? Will violence and oppressive responses occur? As people lose faith, for whatever reason, in political leadership, will social unrest escalate?

ART HISTORY

As an Art Historian I can tell you there is plenty of visual evidence, over centuries, that sickness, plague and pandemic + revolution, anarchy and general social unrest are horrific, and often entwined. Art History shows the horrors of death, sickness, destruction, fear, hatred, hubris, ego, inequality, hunger and hopelessness. I argue that all politicians, policy advisors and really, just everyone, needs to learn some Art History! It might compensate for a lack of imagination....

There's a few grim images of pandemic for you to see in The Black death: Europe's Deadliest Pandemic in Human History

ANXIETIES
As I write this Australia and Australians are also experiencing anxieties about:

• Political resistance to climate change mitigation, in some instances a growing disconnect between  electorates and their political representatives. 
• Allegations of war crimes by some Special Forces operating in Afghanistan. 
• How our political class is handling our relationship with China. 
• Financial insecurity during the pandemic and post-pandemic.
• The US - Australia alliance.
• War talk.
• You can add to the list here!

Australian Landscape - A Metaphor 
After reading all of the above I will let you interpret this new painting! 

If you are a regular reader you will note the tree-of-life and the geolocation grid superimposed on the landscape.

Cheers,

Kathryn

BORDER CROSSINGS

 Crossing the Border watercolour on paper 24 x 32 cm 2020 

More watercolour paintings! 
Following on from my last post Watercolours For Our Strange Times: Online Exhibition


Australia
As Australia confronts a renewed wave of COVID-19 infections, particularly in the state of Victoria, borders between states have closed again, or not re-opened. For Queenslanders, the recently re-opened border is now closed to visiting Victorians or people from accelerating hotspots in New South Wales. Many Queenslanders want the state's Premier to shut the borders again, completely.

Issues associated with borders and border controls are global and historical - colonial annexations,  migration control, refugee movement, trade, security and pandemic mitigation. Closing or monitoring borders for pandemic and disease control - for example: state, village, home, urban borders/boundaries - are not new strategies. Across history and the globe, from plague to cholera outbreaks, Spanish Flu to Ebola outbreaks, quarantining by border/boundary control has occurred. It is clearly a sensible method of disease transmission mitigation, especially when there is no known cure.

Drones - COVID-19
I am interested in the increased use of surveillance technology during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of particular interest is the use of airborne drones for monitoring, crowd control, spraying disinfectant, attempts to gauge temperatures etc. While perhaps laudable in intent, what happens if the use of drones for surveillance and monitoring purposes becomes normalised, and therefore enduring?

Drones Monitoring NSW - Victorian Border
The three watercolour paintings in this post are responses to recent news that police will use airborne drones to monitor the border between Victoria and NSW. This strategy has arisen particularly since the renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in Victoria in July 2020. The drones will monitor parts of the border where people could cross undetected, for instance, by swimming across the Murray River. The river forms the majority of the border and presents ample opportunity to cross if someone was determined. You can read about the use of drones to monitor the NSW - Victorian border by police in articles such as these - one in The Australian  newspaper, another in the Sydney Morning Herald, and another in Australian Aviation.

I wonder if airborne drones are being used  by enforcement authorities to monitor other borders in Australia? I assume they are, or at least, being considered. Australia is a vast country with long, often remote, borders between states and territories.

Border as Metaphor
And, of course, the idea of the border as a metaphor is tantalising, particularly so when rivers are borders. Here, I think about the River Styx, in Greek mythology the border between the underworld and the world of the living. I also think about the Rubicon*. The term 'crossing the Rubicon' relates to Julius Caesar's army crossing the Rubicon River in north east Italy in 49BC. This was considered an act of insurrection and treason, and a declaration of war against the Roman Senate. Metaphorically 'crossing the Rubicon', means there is no return. I ask, what kinds of 'no return' metaphoric borders have we crossed in terms of increasing normalisation of drone use for surveillance and targeting purposes? 

PAINTINGS
Crossing the Border [above] depicts three figures in an ambiguous, but watery, landscape. Are the figures swimming or running? They are clearly in a non-urban environment, and they express a sense of urgency or agitation. Yet, they appear to have not reached their destination. It is as if their bodies link each side of the border - can they return? Here, I am not thinking of a literal return!

 Border Crossing watercolour on paper 24 x 32 cm 2020 

In Border Crossing [above] a human figure and the figure of a dog seem ready to cross a border, a watery border. But, maybe they are already half way across a river, the lines extending downwards from their bodies acting as signs of a watery wake. Or are these elongated limbs or shadows tethering them to a shore, keeping them from reaching the other side?

Monitoring the Murray watercolour on paper 32 x 40cm 2020 

In Monitoring the Murray [above] a human figure has merged with the landscape. The figure's outstretched arm, in freestyle movement, indicates it is swimming. However, the figure has become part of the river, a clever camouflage. As the figure reaches the other side of the river, three drones are surveilling. Are the drones from the underworld? 

Previous painting and post Crossing the Rubicon

Cheers,

Kathryn

TEMPERATURE AND HEARTBEAT

Heartbeats Gouache on paper 2020

This last week media outlets covered developments in the use of drones to help detect temperature and heart beat during the COVID19 pandemic. The drone is equipped with sensors that detect, collect and transmit the data. This technology may be used in Australia, and has been trialed or used overseas. Here is an ABC article with some of the details A 'pandemic drone' and other technology could help limit the spread of coronavirus and ease restrictions sooner. but at what cost? 

I am pleased to see the media ask But at what cost? In a recent post Walking The Dog In The Drone Age , also the title of a painting, I refer to an article by Dr. Michael Richardson   'Pandemic Drones': Useful for Enforcing Social Distancing, or for Creating a Police State? . He also asks questions about the cost of introducing technologies that may appear to be beneficial, but if normalised they may pose future threats associated with privacy, freedom, security and more.

In this post I have uploaded a few recent quick sketches that reflect upon temperature or heartbeat checking by drones equipped with sensors. I am interested in how the human body is imaged, how it is reduced to a site of detection, scanning. I wonder what other types of ailments, characteristics etc might also be detectable now or in the future. I wonder how the notion of detection will change how we view ourselves and others. Here, I note that detection is not vision. The machine cannot see, but it can scan, scope and detect. It cannot dream, imagine or be visionary, all human abilities that are considered as part of having vision.

Temperature Gouache on paper 2020

Drone Swarm Pencil on paper 2020

Drone Swarm depicts a collection of civilian drones working as a team ie: a drone swarm. The radiating lines depicts their surveillance signal arc. Mass checking of heartbeats, temperatures etc at for example a festival, sports event, a large city will likely require numbers of drones. This introduces the concept of drone swarming. This quick sketch draws upon my interest in exposing invisible aspects of contemporary technology - mainly their signals, and how signals create nets in the landscape. 

Detection pencil on paper 2020

These quick sketches may end up forming a whole painting or part of a painting. I've just got to let ideas sit before I launch into a new painting. Or rather, filter all the ideas that swamp my head! This time of isolation has meant that because I do not have normal daily distractions, my imagination is swimming with ideas.


OTHER NEWS

* Please read my recent post regarding my painting Wingman. I've posted the painting below, but it would be great if you read the Wingman post too. Yes, there's Australia's Parliament House!

Today more news about the Royal Australian Air Force and Boeing collaboration to develop a drone that can act as a 'wingman' to other manned aircraft, and potentially other manned assets, has been released. I've added some links to my original post 26/4/2020.

Cheers,

Kathryn

Wingman Oil on linen 97 x 115 cm 2020

WINGMAN (MQ-28 GHOST BAT)

Wingman (MQ-28 Ghost Bat) Oil on linen 97 x 115 cm 2020

UPDATE: Late March 2022 the Loyal Wingman drone in Australia will now be called Ghost Bat. Here's a Boeing Youtube Video  and an article in Defence Connect online.

The Royal Australian Air Force and Boeing are collaborating to develop a new drone, a Loyal Wingman drone.The drone will fly to support manned aircraft, hence the name 'wingman'. With surveillance, stealth and weapon carrying capabilities the drone will be piloted remotely and/or by pilots in manned aircraft of various kinds. Artificial intelligence will be incorporated as a 'force multiplier' to aid an array of capabilities. This drone, when its development is finalised, will be Australia's first 'homemade' weaponisable drone. You can read more about the Loyal Wingman drone on the Boeing Airpower Teaming System site HERE  .

Added May 5 2020: Today, further news was about the Loyal Wingman drone released by Boeing. You can read that news on the Boeing site HERE

Also today May 5 2020 , an excellent overview by Tyler Rogoway of the drone "Everything We Learned From Boeing About Its Potentially Game Changing Loyal Wingman Drone" was published in The Drive

I am not going to go into more detail about the Loyal Wingman drone, because the Boeing site has it all, including videos, press releases etc.

Wingman Oil on linen 97 x 115 cm 2020

What I am going to do is write a bit about my new painting Wingman. 

In the bottom left of the painting I have painted a Loyal Wingman drone in shades of surveillance night-vision green. I have also painted Australia's Parliament House with two civilian drones hovering in the sky above it. Parliament House is suspended in space, as if it is also an aircraft, possibly the manned system my Wingman supports? In the top left I have painted a satellite, again in shades of green. And, a pale blue dot acts as a sentinel, a reminder of 'home'. All of these elements hover in a cosmic space, but invisible signals - and politics - link them all.

The painting offers open-ended, but political and provocative, narratives. It speaks to the a present and a future increasingly occupied by militarised and militarise-able technologies with persistent and ubiquitous reach. 

What do you think? What kind of stories can be told?

Finishing the satellite in Wingman

The Word 'Wingman'

The name Loyal Wingman is an intriguing one for an unmanned system. Surely the word WingMAN, in some ways, re-mans the unmanned! Traditionally a wingman was a pilot flying as support, outside or behind a lead aircraft or formation. More colloquially, a wingman is someone who acts as support  in a social situation, for example, at a bar. 

I ask, does the word wingman, in some form or other, anthropomorphise or humanise the object - the drone? If so, what does this say about subliminal or overt human desires to have relationships with technology? After all, a drone cannot desire - so - any relationships human beings think they have with drones are going to be one-sided affairs! Does the word wingman create a sense of relationship, by promising attributes of  mateship and buddyship? 

Like ascribing attributes of vision to a drone that cannot see, let alone imagine and dream, the word wingman infers a lot more than protection. What kinds of dangers lurk when we humanise drones and other technologies by giving them names, and ascribing attributes, that denote human capabilities? 

AND, what about the word loyal? Surely a wingman is meant to be loyal, so why re-enforce loyalty in the name of a sensored, but not sentient, object? 

And, as always there is a lot more to ponder, but I will leave it to you now!

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I've previously written about potential problems associated with humanising or embodying the drone. Please visit my previous post with lots of paintings The Drone: Do Not Embody

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Other paintings and posts that intersect with Wingman

Walking The Dog, In The Drone Age

AI: Posing Questions 

Drones and Code: Future Now 

Pay Attention: The Drones Are Here

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What's In The Stockroom  

Showcases nine small paintings under $2000 AUD. 

Prices are current until May 18. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

ARE WE PREPARED?

January 1, 2020, Are We Prepared? Oil on linen 31 x 36 cm

Fire and Smoke

Catastrophic fires continue to burn in Australia, around the continent.* Exhausted fire services and volunteer fire fighters have valiantly fought these ongoing fires, some fires morphing into fire storms that scorch the earth as they shoot flames upwards into trees where the canopy becomes an elevated fast moving fiery hell. Daylight turns to red and then black, smoke drifts across the Pacific Ocean to New Zealand, and Australia records some of the worst air quality in the world. 

Were we prepared for the cataclysmic nature of this Summer's fire season? When hundreds of homes are destroyed, lives are lost and emergency evacuations of whole townships happen, we have to address the changing nature of the climate, how the landscape is inhabited and current risk mitigation management systems. Clearly extreme fire risk mitigation management has been lacking or, worryingly, not supported. 

The ongoing dire situation with the fires has revealed a dangerous political disconnect between government and expectations from the population. This disconnect will, likely, continue long after the fires have subsided. Any ensuing political instability will add fuel to unrest, protest, disorder and disappointment. Are we prepared for home-grown extremes of potential political and civil turmoil? 

Risk

The extent and ferocity of the fires have been described as unprecedented. Risk management must include attention to potential worst case scenarios - the unprecedented. With this in mind, what does the current cataclysmic fire situation tell us about other potential cataclysmic or unprecedented risks? Clearly environmental risks such as fire, drought and flood should have taught Australians a lot about risk mitigation. Are there other risks that we remain oblivious to, ignore or find too hard to comprehend? I was thinking about this kind of question when I painted January 1, 2020, Are We Prepared?

January 1, 2020, Are We Prepared?

I finished January 1, 2020, Are We prepared? today - January 1, 2020. I have painted it over the last couple of weeks, as the fires burn around Australia. Most people in Australia will likely know someone directly affected by the fires - I do - for example, as the majority of a family member's property burned, the house was saved by a fuel reduction burn [about 2 hectares of a 10 hectare property] undertaken and organised during the previous Winter. My family member commented on the difference between the surface fire conducted during the fuel reduction burn and the ferocity of the fire that swooped though the property a few weeks ago. The Winter burn did not scorch the soil, the Summer out-of-control burn did.

This morning I listened to a Future of Life Institute podcast conversation between Prof Max Tegmark and Prof Huval Noah Harari. The podcast is an hour long, and it was a great way to start the first day of the new decade. Tegmark and Harari discussed - grounding morality and issues of consciousness, global health, animal suffering, existential risks, nuclear war as a neglected global risk, risks associated with near term AI and longer term artificial general intelligence. They also discussed how to create new stories for the 21st century, risks of big data and AI-enabled human hacking, what does it mean to be human, and what should we want to want. Early on in the conversation Harari asked a question about whether we are prepared for the future. Ah ha, this consolidated my ideas into a title for my new painting!

In January 1, 2020, Are We prepared? a fiery background is a literal reference to the current  Australian fires, and a metaphorical reference to an urgency to think deeply about other potential future risks. Regular readers will know of my long-term interest in existential or catastrophic risk posed by emerging technologies, and my more focused interest in contemporary and emerging militarised and militarise-able technologies. 

January 1, 2020, Are We prepared?, like Australia: December 2019 [below] also refers to the RAAF's confirmation of an order for SkyGuardian weaponisable drones. As weaponisable drones are acquired or manufactured by an increasing number of countries, are we prepared for the kind of war the future 'promises'? (Note added: This order has since been cancelled. However, the RAAF and Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone [previously Loyal Wingman] collaboration continues. The drone will be built at the Wellcamp Aviation and Defence Precinct. This is just outside Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia]

Pixels, Parody and Perspective

In January 1, 2020, Are We prepared? the airborne weaponised drone is painted in small colourful squares that mimic pixels. The colours of the pixels a lolly-like - unreal, but seductive. They contrast with the fiery colours in the background, demonstrating the drone's distance from reality. Is the figure of the drone idealised? If so, what are the risks of idealisation, digital idealisation? The painting also parodies a computer generated image of a drone on a screen, perhaps a remote pilot's screen. It also references the digital imaging technology embedded in a drone's surveillance and targeting systems. Perhaps the fiery background is a war zone, either real or simulated? 

In January 1, 2020, Are We prepared?, are you, the viewer, looking down upon the drone and a fiery landscape below, or are you below the drone looking up at a hellish sky? As you fly, in imagination, around, below and above the drone 'imaginational metaveillance' returns veillance, as a kind of play with perspective, to the human. What kinds of unprecedented risks are revealed when perspective and imagination mingle? Are we prepared to not only to address these risks, but also to look for them?

Australia: December 2019 Oil on linen 23 x 62 cm 2019

* I have not included any links to the fire situation. There are many, and easy to find if you Google.

Kathryn

AUSTRALIA: DECEMBER 2019 - FIRE AND DRONES

Australia: December 2019 Oil on linen 23 x 62 cm 2019

In Australia, as 2019 closes:

Fires rage across a dry country. 

The RAAF's MQ-B9 SkyGuardian weaponisable drones have been ordered. 

...................................................................

Fire changes and disrupts landscape, environment and lives.

The airborne militarised drone, a paragon of 21st century techno-power, changes war, and therefore, life.

......................................................................

I had a lot of thoughts rumbling in my head when I painted Australia, December 2019. But, predominantly I was reacting to current news events, the type of events that can define the future. 

Do we let these events define the future - are we letting them, define the future?

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Australia, December 2019

Flames

Hot

Dry

Landscape

War

Future

Landscape, war and the future.

Landscape, real and virtual.

War, networked and everywhere.
Future?

Flames

Politics

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Update January 1, 2020
Another fire and drone painting is discussed at
ARE WE PREPARED?  January 1, 2020

And, some paintings from 2017.

Hot Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

Fire and Flood, Extremus Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

Anthropocene Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

And, the Aesthetics of Drone Warfare project's conference is in February. Here, is there promotional flyer for the conference, with my painting New Horizons as the central image. 

Cheers, 

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

PAY ATTENTION: THE DRONES ARE HERE

 Pay Attention: The Drones Are Here Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2019

AUSTRALIA AND DRONES

Australia is playing an increasingly active part in the development and procurement of airborne drones for military and associated purposes. Airborne drones are used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance [ISR] purposes, with certain types of drones also capable of carrying weapon payloads.

Examples are::

*MQ 9B Sky Guardian drones have been chosen in favour of MQ 9 Reaper Drones. You can read about this decision HERE in Flight Global. These drones are weaponisable. For background on this decision please check out HERE in an Australian Financial Review article , and HERE is a Defense News: Asia Pacific article.

Triton surveillance drones are also on order. You can read about this news on the Australian Airforce website HERE

And, another drone will be manufactured here in Australia in partnership with Boeing. Currently called the "Loyal Wingman" project, you can read about it on the ABC News site HERE. And, an announcement on the current Defence Minister, Christopher Pyne's website HERE. And, on Boeing's website HERE

Australian defence forces have used surveillance drones for some time. For example the Scan Eagle drone has been used in Iraq and Afghanistan. You can read a 2007 article about the Scan Eagle drone HERE at Defence News. You can also read about a Scan Eagle drone now in the Australian War Memorial's collection HERE

* Updated Dec 3, 2019

 Not Waiting For The Future Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2018

QUESTIONS

As Australia becomes more involved in militarised drone operations, procurement and developments, questions that are already being debated globally need to be debated here too. For example, questions about remote operations - surveillance, targeting and killing. The use of unmanned aircraft with sophisticated ISR capabilities, and possible weapon payloads, raises questions about asymmetric warfare. Increasingly autonomous systems employing machine learning and AI raise questions, for example, about human-in-the-loop decision making and the ethics of machine killing. The contemporary 'warfighter' could be a human being, but also an [semi] autonomous  machine. 

The appropriation of technological infrastructure and systems for surveillance and targeting purposes raises questions about the neutrality, or not, of contemporary interconnected technologies. What part does interconnected technology play in preemptive activities? The increasingly blurred lines between military, security and policing activities raise questions about the nature of  contemporary warfare, and its battle fields and spaces. The accelerating nature of technological development stimulates questions about the future of war, and the future of humanity. Are we in a new arms race? Questions about the role of science and technology come to mind. As do questions about legal and ethical frameworks that can be applied to accelerating developments. The speed of technological operation raises further questions that feed into debates about asymmetric war, human involvement, networked systems, social vulnerability, geopolitics, and more...and more.

Since 2015 I have been thinking about these types of questions. I have also undertaken formal research, completing an M. Phil [University of Queensland] that included research into contemporary militarised technology, particularly airborne drones.  

FIVE PAINTINGS

In this post I have included five paintings that reflect upon Australia and airborne drones. 

Pay Attention: The Drones Are Here [top] is my newest painting. An armed drone is pointed towards an upside-down Australia. Is the drone a new arrival, soon to join its Australian fleet? Maybe it is an Australian drone, maybe not. Australia is upside down on purpose, actually a few purposes! The small squares give the impression of pixels. Is the image a simulation? Are you another drone gazing down upon the scene? Is the painting a screen shot? Or, are you a human engaging your imagination in a way that turns human surveillance back onto the drone? Regular readers will recognise the cosmic perspective I love to use here - like in the other four paintings too. Lots of interesting questions and scenarios!

I'll leave you to ponder now. 

Cheers, Kathryn

 Aeropolitics Imagined Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016

 What If? Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016

Hot Spots Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016

NOT WAITING FOR THE FUTURE

Not Waiting for the Future Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2018

SPEED AND ACCELERATION
With accelerating developments in technology, including militarised or militarise-able technology, the future seems to be hurtling towards us. This is happening at the same time as technology's operative speeds are also accelerating. Here, for example, think about near-lightspeed transmission or processing of data via networked, always on, systems. How do human beings, living in human dimensions of space and time, keep up with accelerating developments and processes that 'play' in dimensions of space and time that are beyond our sentient or experiential reach? 

One domain that is attempting to keep up is the military. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Surely, in attempting to keep up, the military is absorbed into the processes of speed and acceleration. Arguably, this is an ingredient for an arms race - the word 'race' indicating speed! But, if a nation's defence forces do not address the acceleration in technological development, and speeds of technological operation, their duty of care to defend their citizens and allies could be compromised. 

LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPON SYSTEMS
Discussions and debates about the use and development of lethal autonomous weapon systems [LAWS] have been taking place each year at the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons [UNCCW] since 2013. LAWS are weapons or weapon systems, utilising machine learning and artificial intelligence, that enable various levels of management by the system/weapon itself. UNCCW Meetings have occurred in April and August this year - 2018. Debates about what meaningful human control means, preemptive bans on LAWS development, LAWS and International Human Rights Law, and more, have been discussed. 

But, the worry is that these debates and discussions, occurring in human dimensions of space and time, cannot keep up with the actual speed of LAWS development. The Future of Life Institute in its report on the April 2018 UNCCW meeting commented, The UN CCW is slated to resume discussions in August 2018, however, given the speed with which autonomous weaponry is advancing, many advocates worry that they are moving too slowly.

ACCELERATED WARFARE

The Australian Chief of the Army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr, recently released a "Futures Statement" titled Accelerated Warfare. This statement briefly outlines the Army's response to issues posed by the future of war; a future where technology offers new ways of warfighting, new types of warfighters, as well as new dimensions/terrains in which warfighting will occur. The complexity of war, dispersed across multiple domains and capabilities, now and into the future, enhances the challenges faced by the military, and society more broadly. 

As speed and complexity combine, contemporary and future warfare, also presents potential heightened risk in an age where research into existential risk posed by emerging technologies warns of potential civilisation collapse or human species demise. * 

NOT WAITING FOR THE FUTURE
The Chief of the Army made a statement in his 2018 Futures Statement: Accelerated Warfare that sparked my imagination. He wrote, We must pull the future towards us rather than wait for it; My painting Not Waiting for the Future was inspired/provoked by Lt Gen Burr's statement. I have previously written that rhetoric surrounding the 'future of war' militarises the future. Certainly, the future is a dimension already inhabited by anxiety, if not strategy. 

In Not Waiting for the Future I have flipped the continent of Australia to indicate a kind of flipping of time. A satellite and an airborne drone occupy the sky/space, along with an array of signals. A cross-hair target is positioned over central Australia. Red and white dots appear to perforate the continent, perhaps indicating invasive signals, or the presence of other targeting devices. Or are they indicators of Australian defence systems aimed in all directions? 

Two strings of binary code 'instruct' the words FUTURE and LIFE. The unseen and invisible forces of contemporary life and warfare - code and signals - propel us into a future that we, perhaps, don't need to wait for!

This painting is another of my droned landscapes or militarised landscapes. It is also a cosmic landscape that propels the viewer to perspectives beyond the immediate. With cosmic perspectives the occupation of land, sky and space, by signals that enable the operation of militarised or militarise-able technology becomes apparent. Is this a future-scape? If so, is this a future we really want? 

But, what if this future has already arrived?

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* If you are interested in research into catastrophic risk posed by emerging technologies, please start here, at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, The University of Cambridge. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

DANGEROUS DIVERSIONS AND DISTRACTIONS

Trees of Life Vs The Drones Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016

POLITICAL SHENANIGANS

This week's political turmoil in Canberra has left many Australians scratching their heads. I will not go into the politics - that would be a never ending Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole type trip! You can Google for more information! However, for foreign readers, briefly, a sitting Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has been ousted due to recalcitrant forces from within his own party, the Liberal Party. This is not the first time in recent history that this has happened, for either a sitting Liberal Prime Minister or a Labour Prime Minister. 

But, apart from the politics, what about the distraction these kinds of events cause - distraction from more important issues, the issues politicians should be paying attention to? And, there are many.

Here's one that concerns me.

ARMS RACE

Since becoming interested in the burgeoning research area of existential risk posed by emerging technologies, I have become increasingly concerned by political inattention to growing and potential threats posed by advances in technology, either designed for military purposes, or appropriated by defence forces, or aberrant state and non-state individuals or groups. Examples of new and emerging technologies with the potential - due to mal-intent, accident or unintended consequences - to cause major mayhem, civilisation collapse or human species demise are biotechnology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. Combining or linking them could be a extremely worrying.*

Adding to the alarm is the apparent escalation in arms research and development utilising new and emerging technologies, including machine learning and artificial intelligence. There are many voices around the world who are concerned. Significantly, many of them are scientists. For example there are a number of AI researchers and developers, including,  Prof Toby Walsh,  Prof Stuart Russell and Prof Noel Sharkey, who are concerned about increasingly autonomous weapons ie: weaponry utilising machine learning and artificial intelligence. The Future of Life Institute, based out of MIT, has facilitated open letters clearly expressing that AI research and development must be for the benefit of humanity. These letters have been signed by thousands of scientists, philosophers, International Studies scholars and others. One letter is specifically targeted to address concerns about lethal autonomous weapons. I quote from this letter written in 2015 - three years ago, "If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow."

The idea of a twenty-first century arms race is very worrying. So, today I was pleased to see that an interview by David Aaronovitch with historian Yuval Noah Harari was published in this weekend's Weekend Australian Magazine*. I have read Harari's work, but not Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and 21 lessons for the 21st Century. These are on my list! In the interview Harari makes it clear that national political intrigues divert attention away from globally significant issues, such as potential outcomes of emerging technologies. Three years after the Future of Life open letter, here's a sobering quote from Harari, 

    "But in 2018, we are already in a very serious arms race. The Chinese realised it, I think, three 

     or four years ago; the Europeans are realising it now. But the world is in an arms race, and this 

     is terrible news because you cannot regulate this explosive technology if you are in an arms race."

It is ironic that Harari's interview appeared in the Weekend Australian Magazine, the weekend after a week of befuddling political shenanigans that clearly diverted attention away from proper government. It is likely that this coming week will be overshadowed by post-mortem examinations of the last week, intrigues about a new ministry, and what might happen to the so-called 'insurgents' within the Liberal Party. More diversions! Meanwhile, Australia, like the rest of the world, faces repercussions from extremely important issues relating to globally significant and accelerating developments in militarised and militarise-able technology. I have previously written about Australia and a global arms race. Please read my post DRONES AND CODE: FUTURE NOW The title of the post is also the title of a painting.

BACKGROUND

I have a long term interest in existential risk posed by emerging technologies research. This interest was focused on 2015 in research I undertook for a research Masters degree, an M. Phil, at the University of Queensland. Part of my research included examinations of contemporary militarised technology, including, unmanned drone technology, night vision technology, pervasive surveillance capabilities and autonomy in systems. While I was researching I became aware of how fast developments in militarised technology were accelerating. I also became aware that, as the months ticked by, more and more countries were either developing new technology or purchasing it.  And, I also became more aware of the increasing militarise-ability of civilian technology. An arms race, twenty-first century style, is not a fantasy!  

Trees of Life Vs The Drones (above)

This painting depicts a swarm of drones threatening two trees, trees-of-life. The drones represent 21st century militarised technology - unmanned, weaponised, and potentially equipped with some autonomous systems. The drones seem to 'march on' relentlessly! But, let's not give up, the trees-of-life declare! 

Our Bright Future (below)

The contours of the continent of Australia are formed by binary code repeating/instructing AUSTRALIA.  This painting was inspired by watching Kevin Slavin's fabulous TED talk How Algorithms Shape Our World. At one point he says "It's a bright future if you're an algorithm."

Really?

  

Our Bright Future Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016

* Check out the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, The University of Cambridge. 

* Weekend Australian Magazine: if you have an account you can access the interview online.

Cheers,
Kathryn

RETURNING TO THE COUNTRY - "COSMOLOGICAL LANDSCAPES" - EXHIBITION IN MILES

Australian Landscape Cutout Oil on linen 50 x 70 cm 2015

My exhibition Cosmological Landscapes opened two night ago at Dogwood Crossing, Miles, Western Queensland, Australia. My exhibition hangs in the John Mullins Memorial Art Gallery. It is a great gallery space, kitted out to meet regional gallery standards eg: climate control, lighting, hanging systems, loading bays etc etc. Plus, the professional staff are wonderful to work with. And, the Miles community provides a team of well trained volunteers.

This is my first show for nearly three years. The reason for this is that I became a recluse while I was studying and researching for my Master of Philosophy, University of Queensland. My proposal for Cosmological Landscapes was accepted two and half years ago - and - now it is hanging. 

I relished the opportunity to exhibit paintings completed over the last 3-4 years, including some of my very recent paintings that depict airborne weaponised drones, or indications of their presence. Considering that my interest, and subsequent academic research into militarised technology, was spurred by my creative practice, Cosmological Landscapes provides insight into my journey - from a broad interest in existential risk posed by emerging technologies to a specific focus on contemporary militarised technology. This journey is also a 'flight' through the cosmos, where the vastness of my childhood landscape enticed me to wonder about life and the universe. 

The title Cosmological Landscapes invites the viewer to see 'landscape' as something that traverses universal time and scale - from the quantum to the vast. As this was the first opportunity for me to exhibit some of my dronescape paintings, it was interesting to see how my ideas of 'droned landscape' worked with my earlier paintings. In contextualising the dronescapes as landscapes, the exhibition reveals how landscape is mediated by persistent technological surveillance and the enabling invisible signals that ricochet around the world from node to node - satellites, drones, devices, cars, mobile phones and so on. In my artist's talk I suggested that this insidious mediation affects how we might operate and live in the landscape/environment. In Australian regional and rural centres, for example, satellites are used to monitor/record various aspects of agricultural production and activity - planting, clearing, stock movements, fire break construction and maintenance etc. As this kind of monitoring and surveillance becomes more ubiquitous, human behaviour is likely to change. Extreme examples of places where lives are changed by persistent vertical surveillance are Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and others. 

 Exhibition image Cosmological Landscapes

 The Australia corner of Cosmological Landscapes

I am so so happy to have an opportunity to exhibit a selection of my Australia paintings. Underground Currency [far left] depicts the continent of Australia, formed by a cascading tree-of-life. The Great Artesian Basin in painted with small blue $ signs. I 'play' with the term currency in multiple ways! This painting was received very well at the opening - country people 'get' the issues surrounding water and the Great Artesian Basin

Me gesticulating during my artist's talk at the opening of Cosmological Landscapes

Photo: Courtesy of Dogwood Crossing

A selection of my dronescapes at Cosmological Landscapes

Cosmological Landscapes

Cosmological Landscapes

                                                               Cosmological Landscapes

                                        Cosmological Landscapes continues until May 21.

On at the same time as Cosmological Landscapes is The View From Here: An Exhibition of Papercuts. Lead artist on this project is Pamela See.

COUNTRY TRIP

A great trip to the country from Brisbane would be - Toowoomba, Dalby, to Jimbour, cut across to Chinchilla, to MILES [to see my show, and The View From Here!], then to Roma, and to Mitchell where the best scrambled eggs can be eaten at the local bakery. Plus, Mitchell has a wonderful spa complex - yes water straight from the great Artesian Basin!

Cheers, Kathryn