Networked Politics

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a flying trojan

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Sound Magazine visits Fabrica

L’ultima tappa (ma non ultima per importanza) è stata alla biblioteca, posto magico per me, appassionata di libri, in cui ho potuto scoprire stampe uniche nel loro genere. Alice Longo, designer di Fabrica, ci ha illustrato “DRONE: Speculative fictions in the Age of the Drone“, un libro presentato lo scorso 23 maggio 2014 al Dutch Electronic Art Festival di Rotterdam. Proprio partendo dal concetto di drone ed integrandolo in un contesto futuro “possibile”, il libro raccoglie una serie di racconti, che mettono anche in discussione questo tipo di tecnologia e di innovazione. La parola “drone” è ben chiara in copertina, ma viene ripetuta pochissimo all’interno dei racconti, proprio perchè in un probabile futuro, questo farà così parte della nostra quotidianeità, da essere ritenuto ovvio, come un qualsiasi oggetto di casa. Il libro, stampato con risograph, è un progetto dei ricercatori Alejandro Sajgalik (editor), Matthew Rosier (associate editor, illustratore), Natalie Welsh (associate editor, scrittrice) e Alice Longo (design).

Last step but not least, a visit to the library, a magical place for the book-lover I am, where I was able to find unique prints. Alice Longo who designed "DRONE: Speculative fictions in the Age of the Drone", a book that was presented at the Dutch Electronic Art Festival in Rotterdam this past May 23rd 2014. Using the concept of drone as a starting point and integrating it within a context of potential futures, the book is a collection of fictional accounts which questions this technology and its innovation. Despite appearing clearly on the front cover, the word "drone" is rarely repeated in the book's text, because in a likely future drones would be part of our daily lives, as conspicuous and banal as any other household object. The book, printed in risograph, is a project from researchers Alejandro Sajgalik (editor, writer), Matthew Rosier (associate editor, writer, illustrator), Natalie Welsh (associate editor, writer) and Alice Longo (design).

view full article here (in italian) 

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A piece of advice (and evidence of it) to anyone trying to remain as faceless as possible on the web. Someone will have taken a photo of you, put it on their social media page and leave it to that. Year(s) later, when one makes a name for themselves on the web, but has no face, you will be tracked down. The security dogs will be unleashed to scrutinise every dark corner of the celebrity villa you tried, despite the bold print warnings, to infiltrate. Now that you have been fetched, bitten and probably bleeding a little, there's one way to heal the wound. Recapture your image that has been captured and flagged. The only way to regain your facelessness is to throw the retrieved image back into the deep abyss of the world wide web. Leave behind self-righteousness, embrace the Age of Mass Proliferation. De-sourced, just like an orphan (or widowed or divorced), you may finally achieve the anonymity you for ever craved.

ps: thanks to Simone at DEAF for the thought experiment

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Video for our book Drone 

Fantasies of innovation. Soon enough, an increasing number of drones will populate the skies, progressively becoming inconspicuous in our daily lives. An undeniable source of public debate nowadays, unmanned aerial vehicles might be taken for granted in the future as their use becomes streamlined into devices for homeland security and consumer entertainment. Or an added low humming sound to modern megacities' soundscapes. A flock of drones. Birds as an ongoing metaphor for these ever-so-present flying cyborgs. Whilst birds fade in and out, cut-outs from passages of the book are read and shuffled alongside found archival footage, as an invitation to peer into our past as contemporary subjects. If only we knew. Years beyond the 2012 Federal Aviation Association's Modernization and Reform Act, we question how we might be perceiving our present in the future.

Video directed by Sarah Riazati with music by Jhon William Castaño Montoya

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Drone: Speculative Fictions in the Age of the Drone has landed at Fabrica, in Treviso yesterday. Out July 7th on the Fabrica online store. Stay tuned for more updates and launches. 

[droneverde-blog]

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printing progress

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Drone, drone. All alone. Up in the sky. Just sliding by.

Drone, drone, prone to go home. After sorrow or fun, back to where it came from.

- R.S.

[networkedpolitics]

On May 23rd, our forthcoming book Drone: Speculative fictions in the Age of the Drone was presented at the Dutch Electronic Art Festival (DEAF 2014) in Rotterdam by Alejandro Sajgalik.

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Preview of our book Drone: Speculative fictions in the Age of the Drone at Het Nieuwe Instituut bookshop. Forthcoming June 2014. 

photo credit: Ethel Baraona Pohl

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Forthcoming publication 'DRONE' by NetPol and Fabrica researchers

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“Some journalists are concerned that using the RPAs may place them on the wrong side of the privacy/ surveillance debate—especially if the state employs them and unethical journalists or photographers use them in ways to which the public objects.

(…) Thus, it could lead to the perception that journalists are part of the surveillance state and harm the credibility of journalism and news organisations.”

Reuters Institute Report. “Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems & Journalism.” June 2013

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Drone Workshop. 28-30.11.2013. Held by Martin García Wilhelm and NetPol. Video by Sabina Dallu

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Occupy Fabrica

Is Occupy dead? Whether in Puerta del Sol or by the footsteps of St Paul's Cathedral, one today can hardly notice any physical trace left by the protests. As these places have returned to their original flow of passersby, what things still echo in the depth of our collective memory? 

Occupy’s spatial strategy was to place transient structures within places of high political and financial symbolic significance. This project examined how the tactics of Occupy would be translated within the central space of Fabrica’s research centre. In an apolitical place, out in the Italian countryside, a black tent sits incongruously within Fabrica’s central space. Heading to our workstations, our eyes are drawn by the alien black tent. Using a tent—as the symbol that emerged from the Occupy movement—prompted Fabricanti (the people of Fabrica) to observe it in relation to the place they are in. As they passed by, rumours started to spread. Who, why and what the whole set-up was about. The hoax was maintained as I kept my identity secret to some, lied to others and made someone tweet about me having slept inside overnight. Instead of formulating clear claims—another aspect that diffused the scope of Occupy—the installation’s attempt was to generate confusion.

Equipped with remote controlled camera, laptop and powered through electricity cables and wifi connection, the tent was both the ‘buzz’ and a ‘self-broadcasting’ experiment. The recording circuit was located within the tent, storing information about what people said, but also photographed their reactions. 

Just as Occupy used mass-produced tents found in nearby shops or people’s homes, the installation used stationery and objects found around Fabrica. The ‘office aesthetics’ is in direct relationship to the place where the experiment occured. 

So even if today Occupy might seem out of place and outdated, the way we produce events, but also spread and control the information relies on these odds juxtapositions. Can the image Occupy has left in our memory be used in common, non-symbolic spaces—i.e. other than central squares? Bring a political wave back to your everyday spaces—go build a tent at work. 

Project produced by current Networked Politics researcher Alejandro Sajgalik during his trial period in October 2013.