Brilliant day at the ‘Drones in Society: New Visual Aesthetics‘ conference (9th September 2022), run by Dr Elisa Serafinelli (@eliserafinelli). The conference brought together researchers interested in the potential of drones ‘to change the way people see the world’.

As the call for papers outlined, ‘drones are an increasingly important social phenomenon. Their use has the potential to change the way people see the world in the same way other technologies have, like smartphones and the internet. Generating questions that go beyond safety and security issues, their widespread use opens new debates on the relationship between media and mobility (Hildebrand, 2021), material practice (Howley, 2017), and vertical power (Kaplan, 2018). Drones are the latest technological advancement to have a significant impact in the world we live in, offering opportunities for new forms of visual communication, culture and practices.’

The speaker line up was great, involving international speakers presenting on diverse themes. I presented on drone sensing, drawing on examples of drone use in the context of emergency to explore how we might diversify both drone sensing sensibilities and the vocabularies of drone visuals and volumes we engage in their narration. You can find more information in my live-tweeting:

You can also find out more information about the conference and Elisa’s wider research project on the project website.