S1 [Scale] E4: Neocolonial Extraction and Surveillance [w/ Anthony Downey]

The concept of scale is related to mapping, which is intrinsically related to colonisation and neocolonial military practices. Anthony Downey, Professor of Visual Culture in the Middle East and North Africa (Birmingham City University), draws a historical line from the development of cartographic devices and photogrammetry in the 18th and 19th centuries to the neocolonial extraction of data through AI-powered models of hyper-surveillance. Utilised for training neural networks and refining algorithms, these methods of data extraction effectively redefine the future of kinetic and non-kinetic warfare. Programmed within such systems, the operative and rationalising logic of algorithms are, Downey proposes, complicit in increasingly reductive determinations of what constitutes life and death in conflict zones.
COLOPHON
Host: Neja Berger
Guest: Anthony Downey
Recording and editing: Neja Berger
Audio Mix: Staš Kramar
Music: Gašper Torkar
Scale podcast series
Curated by Janez Fakin Janša
Produced by Marcela Okretič
for Tactics&Practice#14: Scale
Production:
Aksioma Institute of Contemporary Art
Ljubljana, 2023
Part of
Tactics&Practice
konS – Platform for Contemporary Investigative Art