Scale | Ep.#4: 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. Spotify Soundcloud Apple podcast Google podcast RSS Support us on Patreon or otherwise! Suggested reading: [Video] Decolonising Machine Vision: Algorithmic Anxieties and Epistemic Violence, a talk by Anthony Downey and conversation with journalist Mojca Kumerdej at the Shifting Scales conference, 2023

[Book] The Algorithmic Apparatus of Neocolonialism: Counter-Operational Practices and the Future Of Aerial Surveillance. In Downey, A. (Ed.), Shona Illingworth: Topologies of Air. Sternberg Press, 2022.

[Article] The Algorithmic Apparatus of Neocolonialism. The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 30(61–62), 2021.

[Interview] Drone Technologies and the Future of Surveillance in the Middle East: Heba Y. Amin & Anthony Downey in conversation