Weaponized Bureaucracy: Kill-Chains, Drones, and Tethers

On the dark winter evening of 8 May 2014 a small audience gathered outdoors in Melbourne, Australia to witness Aerial ReCreation, a performance billed as “an expansive demonstration of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in a sales pitch to the public” (Next Wave 2014a). The performance was scheduled to run from 6–8pm in the small car park behind BUS Projects, an artist-run gallery, and intended to investigate the incursions of military technologies and techniques of surveillance and control into civic society. A white, 1990 Nissan Pulsar hatchback was parked near the center of the space, a bank of laptop screens glowing from within. Walking around the perimeter of the car park, a figure projected sound from a hyper directional speaker mounted on a pole. Just above the car, a small UAV hovered, a mass of wires, sensors, and lights about two feet wide, held aloft by six whining propellers. Built by the artists from commercially available parts, this domestic drone was attached to the car with a short rope.