FREEDOM?

Freedom? Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2021

'End' of US war in Afghanistan August 2021

As US and allied forces left Afghanistan, the Taliban swiftly took over the country's leadership. A short window of time in August saw thousands of people fleeing or attempting to flee Afghanistan. Kabul airport became the epicentre for evacuations of foreigners, and Afghanis fearful for their lives under Taliban rule. 

Like I imagine many readers, I watched the news with mixed heavy feelings - despair, frustration, sadness, hope. One of many images that stuck in my head, was the photograph of the Chinook helicopter flying over the US embassy. Apparently helicopters landed at the embassy site to assist evacuation of US officials out of the embassy building to Kabul airport. 

Chinook Helicopter - Short History

The Chinook helicopter's history is interesting. Early versions were developed in the late 1950s, further developed by Boeing in the early 1960s. The helicopter was first used in combat situations in Vietnam in 1965. This large multi purpose aircraft has been 'hovering' in our visual fields for decades, via livestreamed and photographed war, conflict and humanitarian-aid reporting.. Whether the Chinook is spilling armed soldiers out of its cavernous fuselage, assisting people to flee dangerous situations, carrying equipment in its huge hold or tethered under its massive body, this helicopter is emblematic of contemporary war and conflict.

August 26 Terrorist Attack, Kabul Airport

On August 26 an ISIS-K perpetrated  terrorist attack occurred at the HKIA's Abbey gate at Kabul airport. Sixty people were killed including locals, Taliban members and 13 US service men and women. On August 29 a US retaliatory drone attack killed 10 people. On September 18 US officials confirm [unusually] that these people were all civilians and included 7 children. This signature strike [no identity, but based on patterns of behaviour] represents another horrific failure of intelligence, in a line of fatal flaws. The 2015 Brave New Films documentary Unmanned: America's Drone Wars  provides an informed, critical and horrifying historical context for the August 29 attack. 

Freedom?

Freedom? is my reaction to the recent and quick cascade of events - US and allies' retreat from Afghanistan, swift Taliban leadership take-over, scenes of mayhem at Kabul airport, terrorist attack at the airport, and 3 days later another US drone strike! 

In Freedom? I have painted a hovering Chinook helicopter. It can be 'read' as a helicopter in Afghanistan specifically, or it can be read more generally as a contemporary signifier of war, conflict and disaster. I have painted airborne weaponised drones to represent twenty years of armed drone deployments, and the proliferation of drones used by state and non-state actors around the world. The disastrous drone attack on August 29 is a dreadful indictment on retaliation disguised as a legitimate tactic. Clearly swift retribution was more important than deliberated strategy. Jean Baudrillard made many comments in his 2002 reflection on 9/11, The Spirit of Terrorism, that still reverberate today. Here's two of them to ponder "The repression of terrorism spirals around as unpredictably as the terrorist act itself" and "Another aspect of the terrorists' victory is that all other forms of violence and the destabilisation of order work in its favour."

A line of trees can be read in a multiple of ways. They can act as an horizon or a border, real or metaphoric. As many readers know I often reference the tree-of-life as a way to symbolise human life, and universal life. In Freedom? the trees can be viewed as individual people or groups of people, lives lost, lives under threat, or life as resistance. The cosmic perspective, evident in the painting, opens a critical distance where anomalies, inequalities, lethality and violence demand our attention. 

The trees on the left of the gate appear to be on fire. The trees on the right of the gate are more diversely coloured. I was thinking about people fleeing disaster, some successfully, some not successfully - often a life or death situation. I was thinking about the freedom afforded to westerners with access to things like Chinook helicopters, visas and diplomatic status. I was also thinking about freedom, hoped for and fought for by Afghanis, and others in war and conflict zones around the world. 

The gate could be the Abbey gate at Kabul airport, but that would be too simplistic. I was not there, so it is not my specific story to tell. However, the gate as a symbol is highly charged - the gate between life and death, Heaven and Hell, freedom or subjugation, justice and injustice... The gate in Freedom? is closed, but is it locked? 

Is it guarded?  

Note the question mark in the title of the painting Freedom?

There's more to say - obviously 

Kathryn

* Jean Baudrillard, The Spirit of Terrorism (London: Verso, 2002) 31, 33.

     

THEATRE OF WAR: THE CLOUD

Theatre of War: The Cloud Gouache and watercolour on paper 56 x76 cm 2021

This is my 11th or 12th painting in my Theatre of War series. I'll have to write one post with all of the paintings, so you can see them as a body of work! 

PhD Research

Theatre of War: The Cloud is informed by my current PhD research into the increasing interest militaries around the world are paying to the electromagentic spectrum (EMS) as an enabler of technology, a type of fires, a manoeuvre space and a domain. I am examining the use of frequencies for military purposes, and the ability for state or non-state actors to appropriate civilian technology via the EMS. I pay particular attention to the spectrum range from radio to visible light frequencies. 

THE CLOUD

The Cloud ie: the euphemism we ascribe to the contemporary world of networked and interconnected digital and cyber technologies, is of great interest to me. The concept provides the means for interoperability, a key aim for modern militaries. This means that traditional army, navy and air forces work together using technology that networks capabilities across all of their domains. The military term 'joint force' also encompasses the digital and cyber domains of information and cyber war. The space domain is also drawn into this interoperable mix, with satellites playing pivotal roles in communication, operability and connectivity. The Cloud, however, is not just a military asset - civilian technology also relies on the connectivity, operability and communication that EMS enabled Cloud technologies and systems enable and use.

I have been researching the idea of the cloud as a metaphor. One interesting way of thinking about The Cloud is to draw upon John Ruskin's nineteenth century observations of 'plague clouds' and 'plague winds'. Is militarisation of technology, including the militarise-ability of civilian technology, like a 'plague wind' blowing through the EMS? Is The Cloud, therefore a 'plague cloud'? 

Theatre of War: The Cloud

In Theatre of War: The Cloud I have tried to represent an excavation of military interoperability. The painted-in circles at the bottom of the painting are underwater, possibly autonomous underwater vehicles or sensors. Through the middle are land-based and on-sea systems, possibly also autonomous. At the top of the painting, an airborne drone and a satellite over-watch. In each of the circles with obvious clouds, the technology is obscured. This implies that systemic complexity obscures understanding. The repetition of red and white circles across the painting indicates interconnectivity. These circles visually form a stylised cloud that draws all operations together. That this cloud extends beyond the painting is clear. It is part of The Cloud.

While I conceived Theatre of War: The Cloud as an excavation from sea to space, the painting can also be viewed as a map. This play with perspective is deliberate...

Cheers,

Kathryn

LIMINAL OCCUPATION and INTIMATE WAR

Liminal Occupation Gouache on paper 56 x76 cm unframed 2021

Liminal Occupation and Intimate War: Mapped  'speak' to contemporary war, felt acutely by some, peripherally by others. The space between acute and peripheral is also a war zone of lethal potential, its liminality disguising the hurt.   

The paintings speak to:

Scopic intimacies of surveillance, potential lethality and fear.

Landscapes rendered as computational. The drone and its sensors require this after all!

Slipperiness of political accountability. 

Pixels, algorithms, networks, interoperability, increasingly autonomous systems. 

The everywhere stage of the theatre of war, constantly moving from literal war zone, to screen, at speed. 

And lots more.

Intimate War: Mapped Gouache on paper 56 x76 cm unframed 2021

NEWS

On the 23rd September 12 - 1 pm I am moderating a in-conversation event "Good and Evil: The Internet, AI, Law, Ethics and trust" at the University of Queensland Art Museum. Sharing the stage will be excellent panelists:

• Associate Professor Rain Liivoja, School of Law, The University of Queensland
• Dr. Kate Devitt, Chief Scientist of the Trusted Autonomous Systems (TAS), Adjunct Associate Professor Human-Computer Interaction, Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland

Join us, if you can!

Cheers,

Kathryn

INTIMATE DISTANCE

Intimate Distance Gouache and Watercolour on paper 56 x 76 cm 2021

 

This painting responds to the times in which we live. Times of pandemic, climate change, individual natural disasters, political decay, and failed wars. Sounds dire I know! Painting, for me, is a way to process what is happening. I hope you find what I 'see' of interest.

As Baudrillard, Virilio and others have noted, the effect of instantaneous delivery, onto our various screens, of news and images from hotspots around the world, draws us all into a kind of intimate experience that collapses distances of time and place. Virilio's "temporal compression" in a world of mayhem is a felt experience - a burden and an anguish. (1) 

Intimate Distance invites you to fly. Are you above or below the drone and the strange eyes? Or are you in front of them or behind them? Can you move from one perspective to another? Are the eyes representative of people or are they fake eyes, representing surveillance technologies and systems? One eye's pupil displays a targeting graphic, another eye displays a screen. What is the relationship between these two eyes? There are a few possibilities. 

Intimate Distance invites you to fly, to experiment with what I call 'imaginational metaveillance', a chance to imaginationally 'view' a big picture - to take yourself away and beyond. What kinds of patterns and anomalies can you 'see'. There is hope in the ability to move between and around different perspectives, both literal and metaphoric. 

Here is an anomaly for you. The scape, whether you are looking up at a skyscape or down upon a landscape, attempts to show another kind of scape, one which is invisible but imposed on our environment. It is the scape of technological interconnectivity, networking and interoperability, enabled by harnessing frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum [EMS].  This new imposed 'landscape' of signals and nodes mediates human behaviour in ways that are not simply about material or visible hardware/devices. Are you aware of it? 

And, there is more to think about!

Cheers,

Kathryn

(1.) Paul Virilio, The Original Accident, trans Juli Rose (Cambridge, MA and London, UK, Polity, 2007) p. 13.

 

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

THEATRE OF WAR: PHOTONS DO NOT CARE

Theatre of War: Photons Do Not Care Oil on linen 92 x 112 cm 2021

 

This is the tenth in my series Theatre of War. It is, however, my first oil on linen in the series. The others have all been works on paper.

The title of the painting was inspired by words written by Maj John Casey in a very interesting 2020 article "Cognitive Electronic Warfare: A Move Towards EMS Maneuver Warfare" for the online journal OTH: Over the Horizon: Multi-Domain Operations and Strategy. Casey wrote "The EMS knows no limits and the photons do not care about threat envelopes, fire support coordination lines, national interests, or boundaries."

PhD

As regular readers know I am currently undertaking a creative practice-lead PhD through Curtin University, Western Australia. My research examines the increasing interest militaries around the world are paying to the electromagnetic spectrum [EMS] as an enabler of technology, a type of fires, a 'maneuver space' and a domain. Given that interconnectivity, networking and interoperability draw EMS-reliant civilian technology into militarised capabilities, I argue - we all need to pay attention. 

All frequencies in the EMS [radio to gamma] are made up of photons, massless particles agitating at different energy levels, but all travelling at the speed of light. Lower energy radio frequencies have longer wave lengths and gamma waves have very short wave lengths. The light spectrum is the only one visible to humans [without tech assistance]. 

Casey's comment that photons "know no limits" reminds us that networked and interconnected technologies utilising the EMS have operative functions that, for example, reach light speed. Photons are quantum particles existing in dimensions of space and time that are beyond human access, but not beyond human desires for optimised tactical advantages. Here, I am reminded of Paul Virilio's comment, 

The fact of having reached the light barrier, the speed of light, is a historic event, one which disorients history and also disorients the relation of human beings to the world. If that point is not stressed, then people are being disinformed, they are being lied to. For it has enormous importance. It poses a threat to geopolitics and geostrategy.*

As Casey reminds us, photons do not care about "national interests, or boundaries". Thus, we need to pay attention to military interest in the EMS as accelerating speeds of technological operation, even light speed operative capacities, are likely, as Virilio warns, to disorient the relation of human beings to the world to the point that geopolitics and geostrategy are threatened. If we are disoriented - will we even notice? 

Theatre of War: Photons Do Not Care 
Stars in the universe sparkle, light indicating their presence and history. Mars and Earth are visible. I have painted four Loyal Wingman drones with small dots to indicate their reliance on spectrum. Are the dots photons? Are they false stars? Whatever they are, maybe they create a false universe, a strange simulation? The dotted geolocating points in the landscape reference a marshalling of natural resources to conform to strategic needs. I remind readers that the EMS is a natural and universal resource, photons appearing in the nano-seconds after the Big Bang. 

I will leave you to ponder more. 

Cheers, Kathryn

P.S. Last Theatre of War post was Theatre of War: Spectrum Access  For other posts use the Search This Blog is available on the right side of this post. 

*Paul Virilio, “Red Alert in Cyberspace,” Radical Philosophy (Nov/Dec 1995): 2.

 

THEATRE OF WAR: SPECTRUM ACCESS

Theatre of War: Spectrum Access Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2021

 

This is my 9th Theatre of War painting. The last one was Theatre of War: Photon 

Taking Clausewitz's oft used term 'theatre of war' I suggest that the contemporary theatre of war is now staged beyond geographies of land, air and sea. It is now staged in space, cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum - all domains permeable to each other to allow interoperability and joint force ops. A theatre of war that is endlessly staged - thus it includes time and the future. 

My Theatre of War series addresses some of my ideas about contemporary/future theatre of war.

Theatre of War: Spectrum Access

In Theatre of War: Spectrum Access a figure carries electronic instruments. Is this figure human, an enhanced human or a robot? Maybe it is a simulation for a virtual wargame? The cosmic landscape reminds us that the electromagnetic spectrum is universal - photons appearing in the short seconds after the Big Bang. The tree-of-life, seemingly on fire, conjures thoughts about threats to humanity. And, of course, there is more...

PhD Research

Examining military use of the electromagnetic spectrum [EMS] is the core of my PhD research.  Militaries around the world are increasingly interested in the EMS as an enabler of technology, a type of fires, a 'maneuver' space and a domain. In 2020 US Department of Defense [US DoD] moved from the term 'electronic warfare' to electromagnetic warfare. 

Below are some quotes from a few articles etc that give you an idea about why I am interested in this kind of research.

"Permeating all other domains, the EMS is a foundational domain and enabler of operations in every other domain. With no regard for the sovereignty of any government or military, the EMS provides equitable access to anyone with the means to manipulate it."
Cognitive Electronic Warfare: A Move Towards EMS Maneuver Warfare by John G. Casey in Over the Horizon (OTH) journal, 2021

"The Nation has entered an age of warfighting wherein U.S. dominance in air, land, sea, space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) is challenged by peer and near peer adversaries. These challenges have exposed the cross-cutting reliance of U.S. Forces on the EMS, and are driving a change in how the DoD approaches activities in the EMS to maintain an all-domain advantage." 

Opening sentence of  Forward for the US DoD Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy, October 2020 

In section 3.11 of the Australian Government - Department of Defence 2020 Force Structure Plan, it notes that the Government is investing in "joint electronic warfare battle management and analysis". It also notes that this will be "enhanced" by developing capabilities in the electromagnetic spectrum. 

Australian Government, Department of Defence 2020 Force Structure Plan Section 3.11, page 30.

"The military uses the electromagnetic spectrum - essential, yet invisible - to detect, deceive and disrupt the enemy while protecting friendly forces. As enemies become more capable, and threats more complex, controlling the spectrum is increasingly critical." 
Northrup Grumman website page "Electronic Warfare" 

Cheers,

Kathryn

ARTIFICIAL TREES: PULLING THE FUTURE TOWARDS US

 Artificial Trees: Pulling the Future Towards Us Oil on linen 92 x 112 cm 2021

Read about my new painting below my recent news:

Recent News

A lot has happened in the last few weeks.

The four paintings I had hanging at the Australian Defence College (ADC), Canberra, as part of the College's launch of Arts@ADC are now home. I wrote about the ADC program two posts ago. You can read about it HERE. You can also read about it in an official Department of Defence article by Jess Spry Tacking Defence Issues Creatively. 

There is further news! I was very lucky to meet the Governor General of New Zealand, Her Excellency The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy GNZM, QSO and His Excellency Sir David Gascoigne KNZM, CBE, when they visited the ADC. It was a great opportunity for COL Richard Barrett, Director of the ADC Centre for Leadership and Ethics and founder of Arts@ADC, plus being a sculptor, to speak about his sculptures and Arts@ADC. I was also able to speak about my paintings. Both the Governor General and her husband are keenly interested in the arts, so were a great audience for COL Barrett and me.

L - R Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox, COL Richard Barrett, Her Excellency The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy GNZM, QSO and His Excellency Sir David Gascoigne KNZM, CBE and CDRE Peter Leavy. COL Barrett is talking about his two sculptures Redacted and Homo ex Machina. You can read about them in this Defence briefing Tackling Defence Issues Creatively  Photo: Lauren Larking Copyright: Commonwealth of Australia

L - R His Excellency Sir David Gascoigne KNZM, CBE, Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox, Her Excellency The Rt Hon Dame Patsy Reddy GNZM, QSO and CDRE Peter Leavy. Photo: Lauren Larking Copyright: Commonwealth of Australia

I am also super pleased that my paintings have triggered questions and prompted more enquiries about engaging with my work and me. Shall keep you posted.

 

Artificial Trees: Pulling the Future Towards Us

This new painting relates to a previous painting called Not Waiting For The Future (2018) where I respond to the Chief of the Australian Army, Lt Gen Rick Burr's, 2018 Accelerated Warfare: Futures Statement For an Army in Motion. In the last paragraph he wrote We must pull the future towards us rather than wait for it;  

In my new painting I have included a cascading tree-of-life. The foreground depicts a swarm of Loyal Wingman drones* flying over what appears to be farmland planted with rows of some kind of 'crop'. Are the drones swarming 'pests'? However, these radiating lines are, in fact (?), geolocating graphics guiding the drones' flight paths. Fake or artificial trees sprout from this 'landscape'. These trees take on the appearance of computer chip-board circuitry, key enablers of contemporary technology. Three rectangles enclose yellow trees-of-life, indicating that life is being monitored, identified and possibly targeted by surveillance technology. Is another human even watching?

BUT, there appears to be some hope! A branch of the cascading tree-of-life seeks a new path - maybe?

The fake or artificial trees herald a future of technological speed and acceleration, where algorithms, machine learning and AI mediate human life in realms beyond human access. The Pale Blue Dot observes....

Collisions and Accidents?

If we think about Paul Virilio and his theories of speed and accidents - Collisions occur when speed cannot be controlled - what about a collision of the present with the future? 

____________________________________________________

* A previous post called Wingman might interest you. 

Update: the Wingman drone is now called the MQ-28 Ghost Bat. You can see more of the Wingman/Ghost Bat drones on my online exhibition  
WINGMAN (MQ-28 GHOST BAT): ONLINE EXHIBITION

Cheers,

Kathryn

FUTURE MEMORY

Future Memory Oil on linen 122 x 137 cm 2021

 

A tree-of-life cascades across a cosmic landscape. The tree's freely flowing branches contrast with the template of four Loyal Wingman drones. Green crosses formulate the landscape with co-ordinates. The landscape must be measured and datafied! Points of reference geolocate the drones within the landscape, and the cutouts 'speak' to agile proliferation. An occupation of landscape.

Four trees bow in the wind on a distant horizon. Are they targets? Are they sentinels sending warnings back to the past? 

On the bottom of the painting, a drone walks a human being. The tether acts as a symbol of human reliance upon technologies that operate beyond human domains of speed, time and space. This 'memory' of the future recalls how human beings need to be 'looked after', especially in landscapes measured for the machines.  

The shade of night-vision green used to paint the human being, its master drone, the orienting crosses and the Loyal Wingman template 'speaks' to surveillance, to imaging technology that can see in the dark - the dark being a metaphor for the humanly un-seeable, the invisible, the forgotten. The dark is data. 

____________________________________________________________________________

A previous post called Wingman might interest you.

and

You might be interested in reading about my Theatre of War series.

Australian Defence College, Canberra
If you have not already done so, please read my last post about my experience exhibiting at the Australian Defence College [ADC], Canberra. The paintings are up until the afternoon of June 3, so if you are someone who can access the ADC, please take a look!

Cheers,

Kathryn

EXHIBITING AT THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE COLLEGE FOR ARTS@ADC PROGRAM

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox: Four paintings at the Australian Defence College, Canberra

L to R:
Walking the Dog in the Drone Age - Anomaly Detection  - Wingman and January 1, 2020: Are We Prepared?

ARTS@ADC EXHIBITION 
I have just returned from Canberra where I have a small group of my paintings exhibited at the Australian Defence College (ADC) as part of their new ARTS@ADC Program. I am one of three artists, and the only civilian. The other two artists are COL Richard Barrett and MAJ Anne Goyne. This quote from the ADC explains some of the premise for the ARTS@ADC Program:

Self-expression communicates individual and collective experience in a way that others can interpret and find meaning. In the ADF, the means to express ourselves is often limited to verbal and written orders, briefs and demonstrations. Arts@ADC is a new program for ADC staff, students, alumni and members of the community to engage with contemporary Defence issues in a creative way.

I am really buoyed by the open-minded and inquisitive responses to my paintings at ARTS@ADC. As readers know, my work is provocative, speculative, and open for multiple interpretations. Exhibiting my work to a specific military/defence audience is a new experience for me. In conversations and at my artist's talk, I was thrilled that the ADC audience articulated how my paintings prompted thoughts about their own knowledge and experiences. It was clear that raising questions about the relationship between accelerating developments in technology and war was welcomed. And, interestingly, apart from the actual paintings, people were keen to hear how I include painting as a process to work through academic and technical research, to generate new ideas, pose critiques and offer speculations about the future. 

I am aware that ARTS@ADC plans a diverse range of exhibitions, performances and experiences for their staff and students to engage with. The aim to engage with contemporary Defence issues in a creative way situates the program within international and burgeoning realisations that cross-disciplinary research and activities provide new ways to ask or trigger questions, to prompt often difficult conversations, to reflect upon the status quo, to understand the importance of culture and to think about the future. 

ARTIST-RICHARD BARRETT
I was thrilled to be asked to exhibit by COL Barrett, Director of the Centre for Defence Leadership and Ethics at the ADC, founder of ARTS@ADC, and fellow artist. COL Barrett's creative practice is sculpture. He has two of his works exhibited in the ADC courtyard. This is a brief introduction to his two sculptures, as written in information about the ARTS@ADC Program: 

The first piece "Homo ex Machina" is a recycled steel cube mounted on its vertex. Plasma-cut into its panels are the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – depicted in morse code. The work signifies the need to ensure that science, artificial intelligence and computing power serve human needs, and that when we design these systems we need to ensure individual rights are represented. The second sculpture, "Redacted", engages with allegations of war crimes in Afghanistan. The black squares of the internal pattern recall the blacked-out redactions within the Brereton Report, and the repetitive motif within the cube samples the aniconic geometric patterns in Islamic art.

The photo below shows COL Barrett speaking about his work to people who attended the ARTS@ADC launch. This piece is "Redacted". His two pieces Homo ex Machina and Redacted looked like wise sentinels watching over the campus, giving permission to question.

You can find more of Richard Barrett's thought provoking, thoughtful and arresting work at Richard Barrett-Sculptor 

Photo-Courtesy ADC

ARTIST-ANNE GOYNE

Anne Goyne, also a member of the Centre for Defence Leadership and Ethics at ADC, exhibited charcoal and chalk drawings. Her body of work called, "Through Different Eyes" depicts various images of people, including Anne’s own father and grandfather, involved in war. The over-arching theme is that war is a frequent visitor in our lives and we have a right to defend ourselves and our way of life; however, the sacrifice of those sent to fight must be both just and warranted.  

 

I can vouch that looking into the eyes of Anne's portraits, trying to work out where they were looking too, triggered thoughts about the past and the present, inner life and duty.

Anne Goyne talking about her work Through Different Eyes

Photo-Courtesy ADC

ARTS@ADC launch: L to R: MAJ Anne Goyne, ADC Psychologist [artist]; MAJ Kate Carter, Course Designer at the Centre for Defence Leadership and Ethics, ADC and ARTS@ADC co-ordinator [extraordinaire]; COL Richard Barrettt; Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox: Photo-Courtesy ADC

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Australian Defence College
Richard Barrett Sculpture
Cate Carter  PhD examined civilian-military relationships

Anne Goyne

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

ART - MILITARY RELATIONSHIPS
Analogue artforms, such as hands-on painting, sculpture and drawing, have a long historical association with war, the military and defence. Indeed there are multiple intersections - recording military battles and their aftermaths, visualising heroism and suffering, used as propaganda and grandiose political displays, created as resistance and more. The art historical development of one-point perspective in painting and drawing during the Renaissance is shared with the historical development of mathematical means to assist military targeting, scoping, surveillance and cartography. Here, I urge you to read Antoine Bousquet's excellent book The Eye of War: Military Perception from the Telescope to the Drone . 

My experiences, recent and over many years, tells me that painting in the 21st century has an agency that provides a critical distance from the electronic, digital and cyber technologies militaries, and societies, now rely upon. This distance, provides another kind of perspective, creating a space for critique and reflection on the development and use of these kinds of technologies. I remind the reader, painting does not rely upon electronic, digital or cyber technology for creation, exhibition or storage. It is, therefore, independent from the system that largely operates beyond humanly accessible domains of time and speed. Looking at a painting and creating a painting offer ways to re-enter the dimensions of humanly experienced time, speed and space. Here, imagination has time to roam, to fly. 

In my talk at the ADC I offered  my paintings as invitations to fly, in imagination, into cosmic realms. In doing so, I suggested that scrutiny can be turned back upon the systems and hardware of surveillance and war. I call this an act of imaginational metaveillance. As cosmologist and astronomer, Martin Rees, points out a “cosmic perspective strengthens the imperative to cherish this ‘pale blue dot’ in the cosmos. It should also motivate a circumspect attitude towards technical innovations that pose even a small threat of catastrophic downside.” Our Final Century (London: Arrow Books, 2004), 188.

When I briefly explained my ideas of imaginational metaveillance to the audience at ADC, I saw a number of smiles and nodding heads. Such great feedback!

Cheers,

Kathryn

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox: Artist's talk at ART@ADC

VERIFIED LANDING SITE

Verified Landing Site Oil on linen 92 x 112 cm 2021

Verified Landing Site continues my interest in thinking about portraiture in an age of facial recognition technology. My last post ME: Portraiture in the Age of Facial Recognition details some of my thoughts - plus - there is a self-portrait - or is it?

In Verified Landing Site I have combined facial recognition-type computer graphics with  airport landing-type graphics. In this case the Loyal Wingman* drone, positioned in the middle of the blue 'iris', gives a clue to what kind of craft is landing. However, the idea of 'landing' is also a metaphor for landing on our subconscious.

Cheers,

Kathryn

*Previous Wingman post and painting. 

ME: PORTRAITURE IN THE AGE OF FACIAL RECOGNITION

ME: 01001101 01000101 Oil on linen 92 x 112 cm 2021

 

ME is a self-portrait. It is a painted self-portrait. It visually parodies facial recognition computer graphics.*

IDENTITY & VERIFICATION
For me, my defining features are my very blue eyes, and my long hair which I wear in a loose, often messy, bun. Despite these defining features appearing in the portrait, further confirmation that ME is me is given with a verification tick generated by facial recognition technology. This is corroborated by the binary code 'instructing' the word ME. I ask, are we heading for a future history where identity is verified only by AI and coding? If identity verification is ubiquitously provided by technology, will human beings stop looking - and - seeing? Maybe - think about the way contemporary motor vehicles have smaller windows, especially at the rear, than years ago. We don't need to look - or see - when sensors are embedded! This is what I have been told by many car salespeople. 

In a world of digital imaging, facial recognition and biometric scanning, this painted self-portrait is possibly not verifiably me, simply because it is a painting and not a computer graphic, generated by facial recognition technology. Which has more authority, a painted self-portrait or a computer generated image? In the age of fakeness, I think the painted self-portrait certainly has authority! As a painting, my self portrait is untethered from reliance on algorithms, signals and an energy source [battery, electrical]. It exists as an independent unit, unconnected and not networked. As a painting, I think it is defiant in the face of such technology!

Are we in danger of being defined and verified by surveillance photography and digital scanning? Given questions around using AI to detect emotions, I think this is a key question, among many. Check out this short article about this topic, by Kate Crawford, in Nature 

PORTRAITURE
As I painted ME I wondered what might happen to portraiture in the age of facial recognition. Will painting survive as a human activity? Will paintings by human beings be influenced by pervasive technologically synchronised and homogenised aesthetics? What might happen to artists who don't fall into the influence of aesthetic homogenisation?

My gambit, with ME, is visual parody.

DRONE
And, for regular readers, there is a drone! The airborne drone gives a clue that facial recognition is being used to monitor my behaviour, identify my person, document my whereabouts. But, there is another way to look at this! As a painting, in reality, you and I have the drone under surveillance, its signaling exposed, and its connection to insidious surveillance revealed. That this information cannot be tracked, hacked, modified or datafied - because it is a painting -  may be scurrilous...how delightful! 

I think this self-portrait says a lot, and more, about ME!  

* Is It Me? is another self-portrait you might like to see and read about.

Cheers,

Kathryn

THEATRE OF WAR: PHOTON

Theatre of War: Photon gouache on paper 56 x76 cm 2021

 

Electromagnetic Spectrum
This is my eighth Theatre of War painting. In this painting I am experimenting with how to think about the increasing interest, taken by militaries and defence departments around the world, in the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) as an enabler of technology and a domain to dominate. This is particularly evident in policy and strategy documents produced by the US Department of Defence (DoD) in the last two years. An example is the US DoD's Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations, May 2020 statement. 

Photons
All electromagnetic energy is made up of photons travelling at the speed of light. Photons are mass-less particles that travel in a wave-like motion. Each photon has a certain amount of energy which determines different radiation or frequencies. All frequencies in the EMS are created by photons - radio waves have lower energy and therefore longer wavelengths than gamma rays, which have the highest energy and shorter wavelengths. You can learn more at this NASA site. 

Electronic Warfare - Electromagnetic Warfare
As the term electronic warfare becomes a legacy term replaced by the term electromagnetic warfare, I think some focus on photons provides interesting ways to think about how the EMS, as an environment, a domain and a commons, is actively targeted for military-purpose domination. The change in terms is clearly noted in the Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations May, 2020 statement page  GL-9, and the DoD's Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy, October 2020, page 26.  

Theatre of War: Photon
In Theatre of War: Photon I have painted six Y photon symbols. They are painted with wavy lines to indicate frequencies. The colours - red, blue, white and grey - were chosen after reading the DoDs Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority Strategy, October 2020 document. It describes (page 12) where data to "support operations and analysis" will be garnered ie: across a range of military and civilian sensors, equipment, platforms, activities, communications. - from entities/hosts that are hostile or adversary (red), US (blue), coalition or potentially friendly (grey) and commercial or non-military (white)." The photon symbols are painted against a cosmic-like background to indicate a universal force. Although appearing like a wall, the wavy-lined circular shape on the left is meant to shift perspective. 

Photons appeared moments after the Big Bang. They first emitted light and energy at around 300 million years . The EMS is a natural force and environment. It is part of the fabric of the universe. 

In our sphere of Earthly influence, what are the possible outcomes of militarised EMS domain dominance?        

Links to previous Theatre of War paintings are:

Theatre of War: Domain Dominance 

Theatre of War: Ghosts Warn 
Theatre of War: Spectrum  Other links are on this blog post.

Cheers,

Kathryn

THEATRE OF WAR: DOMAIN DOMINANCE

Theatre of War: Domain Dominance Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2021

This is my seventh Theatre of War painting - my series is developing! Here is a link to my sixth painting Theatre of War: Ghosts Warn, where there are further links to earlier paintings.

THEATRE OF WAR

In these paintings I explore the notion of 'theatre of war', oft mentioned by General Carl von Clausewitz in his early nineteenth century famous tome On War. I explore the notion 'theatre of war' as a way to think about how contemporary war has seeped beyond geographic boundaries to infiltrate digital and cyber worlds, the media, social media and information. I also draw the electromagnetic spectrum [EMS] into the contemporary notion of 'theatre of war'. Why? 

The EMS is both an enabler of contemporary militarised technology and a domain of increasing military interest. Importantly the EMS also enables contemporary civilian technology. Thus, as a shared resource the EMS can clearly be described as dual use. However, I argue, that the term 'dual use' belies the complexity of contemporary technology where networking, interconnectivity and the 'Internet of Things' expose civilian technology [systems and hardware] to both overt and insidious militarise-abiliy. This militarise-ability is not just the purview of state-based defence forces, but also non-state and aberrant groups or individuals.

DOMAIN DOMINANCE

In Theatre of War: Domain Dominance I have tried to convey that EMS domain dominance, a direct US Department of Defence policy, extends the theatre of war into the invisible [except visible light] natural resource of the electromagnetic spectrum. Like the natural physical environment, the EMS is occupied, colonised and used for advantage. As an enabler of technology the EMS is a protagonist in the contemporary theatre of war, and as a domain of military interest it forms part of the extensive, everywhere stage of contemporary war. 

In Theatre of War: Domain Dominance I have depicted a number of black boxes, indicating secret or discrete capabilities. I have painted strings of binary code 'instructing' words like 'NODE', HUMAN', 'DRONE' and 'CLOUD'. Trees-of-life hover in designated zones, as does the group of human figures. Are they targets? Everything is connected by signals and wavelengths delivering coded instructions, data and information. Surveillance night-vision green clouds deceptively float, stored information stacked. Targeting cross-hairs on the far right indicate a possible mission - the map-like depiction of the 'stage' reveals the drama.

And - yes - there is more to say!

Cheers,

Kathryn

 

THEATRE OF WAR: GHOSTS WARN

Theatre of War: Ghosts Warn Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2021

This is my sixth Theatre of War painting. The other paintings can be accessed via my post Theatre of War: Spectrum

Clausewitz
Theatre of War: Ghosts Warn is again inspired by thinking about the famous 18th/19th century General Carl von Clausewitz's famous tome On War . In this book Clausewitz regularly refers to the term 'theatre of war', even devoting a chapter to it [Book V, Chapter II]. In the 21st century the concept of 'theatre of war' extends beyond Clausewitz's idea of a "portion of the space over which war prevails as has its boundaries protected, and thus possesses a kind of independence". While the idea of a portion of space, independence and protected boundaries are blurred by new modes of warfare, such as cyberwar, information war, electronic and electromagnetic warfare, I think it is interesting to ponder what the contemporary 'theatre of war' actually might mean.

For a start, Clausewitz describes journeying to a 'theatre of war' and moving within a 'theatre of war'. With contemporary modes of warfare operating across multiple domains in mind, moving to or within theatres becomes problematic, even obsolete in certain circumstances. For example, what if we ask ourselves, are we permanently within the contemporary 'theatre of war'? If so, journeying to the 'theatre' is not possible. Maybe it's more like moving across a stage, sometimes the drama can be wild, and at other times subdued.

Clausewitz also writes about 'our theatre of war' and the enemy's 'theatre of war'. The 'theatre of war' he describes is geographically based, overlaid by strategy, movement of armies, and politics.  While the politics bit remains, geography, strategy and movement of armies are part of a complex matrix of concerns in an equally complex matrix of battle spaces, where notions of 'ours' and 'theirs' are increasingly blurred, if not similar. In a world where technology renders various modes of state and non-state warfighting capabilities as continuously engaged, escalation and de-escalation can potentially occur at light speed. This includes the information war, and its partner social media. Speed is a key ingredient that helps 'conduct' and 'produce' the contemporary everywhere-all-the-time 'theatre of war'. 

Roles Played in the Contemporary Theatre of War
In the contemporary 'theatre of war' we are all wittingly or unwittingly 'playing' roles that change in type, degree and importance. If we own a mobile phone, for example, we could provide a node for a state or non-state actor to appropriate for multiple reasons. With both state and non-state actors having commensurate or near-commensurate technical capabilities, a more synchronised and ubiquitous 'theatre of war' potentially destroys a traditionally understood story arc - declaration of war, duration of war and end of war. My ideas here are informed by cultural critic Paul Virilio's commentaries on technology, Jean Baudrillard's three essays first published in the French newspaper Libération in 1991 ie: “The Gulf War Will Not Take Place”, “The Gulf War is Not Really Taking Place,” and “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place,” March 29, 1991, plus David Kilcullen's very interesting recent book The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West [2020].

Ghosts
In Theatre of War: Ghosts Warn I have painted various elements of contemporary war ie: two drones [one a Loyal Wingman drone], parodies of geolocation and terrain visualisation technology, targets, a satellite, indications of built environments, and signals transmitting instructions, information and data. All of these either normally visible or normally invisible aspects of contemporary war create a scape that overlays a background that could be a landscape or a skyscape - are you above or below this 'production' of the contemporary 'theatre of war'? Flipping your perspective could possibly be helpful!

I have also included ghosts. Maybe speed makes everything ghostly? What are these ghosts warning us about?

I'll leave it up to you to ponder.

NEW PODCAST NEWS

I was interviewed by Paris-based Cecilia Poullain for her Brave New Women series of podcasts. She asks me about my PhD, the influences of my parents, my artwork, and about being a single Mum. You can watch it here on YOUTUBE

Cheers,

Kathryn