Great to join the Quiet Drones symposium, a space to explore emergent issues around drone noise. Alongside learning a lot from sound researchers and practitioners interested in drones, I offered a human geography presentation and report on the theme of ‘exploring the social and political implications of growing drone noise in UK skies’.
The symposium’s blurb reads ‘enormous progress has been made on drone technologies in the last decade and the number of professional drones is increasing dramatically and is now much higher than the number of conventional aircraft. Safety, security and privacy have controlled the development of drones up to now but noise has become an issue in residential areas and environmentally sensitive areas such as National Parks. On the other hand ultra-silent machines represent a problem for privacy and security. The Symposium provides a venue for researchers on drone noise to meet with manufacturers, users and those engaged in designing innovative applications for this new technology.’