Consumer drones have seen extensive use on the battlefields of the Russo-Ukrainian war. In their recently published article, Hendrik Bender and Max Kanderske analyse how off-the-shelf drones by manufactures like DJI reconfigure the practices and aesthetics of drone warfare, bringing about new forms of drone discourse. The article is part of the collection Drones in Society – New Visual Aesthetics edited by Elisa Serafinelly.
Abstract:
In the early stage of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Bayraktar drone emerged as a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. Though the Bayraktar became a pop culture icon that circulated through social media via videos, songs and memes, its actual use on the battlefield soon got overshadowed by another type of drone: the humble consumer drone provided by manufacturers like DJI and Autel. Hendrik Bender and Max Kanderske argue that this shift towards off-the-shelf consumer drones is marked by new practices of wartime drone flight, new aesthetics of battlefield footage and – importantly – a notable shift in the drone discourse towards more ‘heroic’ narratives. Starting from the observation that the existing body of work on conventional drone warfare does not readily map onto what they call ‘consumer drone warfare’, their article aims to shed light on how battlefield footage produced by consumer drones enters the online discourse and – consequently – our day-to-day lives. Bender and Kanderske posit that the intimate depictions of violence produced by consumer drones serve (at least) two functions: they allow a besieged state to perform (aerial) sovereignty while eliciting support for the war effort at the same time, for example through crowdfunding schemes like the Drones for Ukraine Fund.
The article is available via Springer Link.