Article:
The light of God: Notes on the visual economy of drones

Author(s): Väliaho, Pasi

Abstract

This article charts the contemporary aerial military technology of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or drones, which are used for both surveillance and combat in current ‘overseas contingency operations’. It focuses on the form of techno-visual power that UAVs represent. Drone control screens facilitate the accumulation of data of the patterns of life of populations so as to detect potential future threats, whilst simultaneously acting as key players in pre-emptive strikes. This article explores the striving for spatio-temporal omniscience and omnipotency that animates this particular technology of vision – the drone as a technology of the ‘light of God’.

Download icon

Published in:

Preferred Citation
BibTex
Väliaho, Pasi: The light of God: Notes on the visual economy of drones. In: NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies, Jg. 3 (2014), Nr. 2, S. 99-111. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15151.
@ARTICLE{Väliaho2014,
 author = {Väliaho, Pasi},
 title = {The light of God: Notes on the visual economy of drones},
 year = 2014,
 doi = "\url{http://dx.doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/15151}",
 volume = 3,
 address = {Amsterdam},
 journal = {NECSUS. European Journal of Media Studies},
 number = 2,
 pages = {99--111},
}
license icon

As long as there is no further specification, the item is under the following license: Creative Commons - Namensnennung - Nicht kommerziell - Keine Bearbeitungen