Drone Aviaries & Field Guides A Conversation with Superflux

Superflux are a design and foresight consultancy and bespoke R&D lab based in London. Founded byAnab Jain and Jon Ardern in 2009, the studio produces prototypes, research, and films that aresimultaneously savvy, prescient, and playfuland now they can add magazine publisher to that list ofoutputs. A few weeks ago the studio announced the first edition of Superflux, a Warren Ellis-editedperiodical that would mutate in medium from issue-to-issue and archive and disseminate their research.The first issue is a handsome A1 poster expanding on their recent work with drones andintrigued byboth form and contentan email discussion ensued and the duo shared a PDF of the poster for CANto inspect.

Superflux Issue 1 is quite a pristine artifact; drawing on the correlation between a colour-codedisometric diagram on one side, and an illustrated field guide on the other, it tasks the reader withunpacking the dense airspace of a drone-filled near future. Warren Ellis wryly frames the ascent of dronesand contributor Tim Maughan zooms-in and provides nuanced backstories for ten specific models. Withtales of market-driven opportunism, infrastructure, surveillance and data collection, each of these micro-

narratives is a plausible sketch of how drones might inflect social interactions and culture while buzzingacross cityscapes. Given the pervasive handwaving about drones in both theory and media art circles, itsrefreshing to read something delivered in a matter-of-fact tone that is invested in interrogating theirpotential (as a medium) rather than exploiting their quasi-alien aesthetic or fixating on quasi-legalcontemporary military applications.

The first issue of Superflux is hot off the press and now shipping (you can order via the link at the bottomof this post) and to further contextualize the project, Jain and Ardern have engaged in an interview withCAN about drones, the nature of their new publishing imprint, and their work in foresight.

I love immaculate print projects as much as the next person, but I have to ask: why does adesign and foresight studio launch a (non-digital) periodical in 2015?

Good question. There are several reasons, weve gone into some of them at length in this blog post. But toget to the heart of itdespite the continuing trend towards the digital, and possibly because of it, wewanted to create some media artifacts which cohabit our physical spaces. Previously, we have made smallbatches of physical things and put them out in the world, (Atomic Seeds, Edible Cards, Tarot Cards) soits something we enjoy doing, and given the nature of our practice, it feels appropriate to experiment withthe form of our publication. We find that we also spend a lot of time writing or working with writers, andwe wanted to continue exploring how these relationships could develop further (also secretly, we havealways been huge admirers of Archigram magazine!)

The mandate to rethink form from issue to issue reminds me of Jordan Crandalls workwith Blast in the 1990s. What are some examples of how you might experiment with yourformat?

Thanks for pointing us to Jordan Crandalls work, its great. We genuinely have no idea of what the nextissue might be, but that is something we find very exciting. If we were to speculate, wed saya new tarotcard deck (as we are developing something along those lines for another project), possibly a sticker set,maybe some origami architecture?

One of the most interesting things about the first issue of Superflux is the interplay

between its narrative and your Drone Aviary video. Having seen the latter first, themagazine felt like a field guide to the various drone scenarios and really flushed out myunderstanding of each of the use cases. Could you speak to how each medium elaborates ondifferent aspects of the underlying research?

The project, as it was originally envisaged, and still might end up being, is a highly experientialinstallation, as described in the posters introductory text. Within the planned installation, visitors comeinto direct contact (well hopefully not direct contact) with a series of flying drones the field guide wouldserve a means of understanding each drones motivations and backstory, bringing a new layer of contextto the work.

Although the project as being exhibited currently at the V&A Museum is not a live installation, the dronesand the film act as important companions. The film is dense and multilayered, and might require repeatedviewings to really dig into it. It captures an almost feverish intensity that the cinematic medium is perfectfor. Its powerful, rushed, creepy, beautiful, haunting, all the at the same time. What might be difficult tograsp in that short time, are the intentions and motivations behind each drones functions and behaviours.

And that where the magazine comes in. Its our hope that the printed artifact can act as both a kind ofnonlinear map in order to help orientate the viewer in the world that the film explores, and as tool forconsideration of the projects themes, within its own right. The two mediums, as always, work beautifullyon their own, and as accomplices.

One narrative element that is used in very different ways across the poster and the video isthe Cartographies of the Sky map that plots out aerial strata and demarcates relatedpragmatic concerns (e.g. no-fly zone geofencing around buildings). In the video we seezoomed-in animated sequences of drones traversing these skyways and with the poster weget a more expansive overview. How exactly does this diagram work and what role did itplay in your research?

The diagram is a sketch, and a constant work-in-progress. Its not so much a detailed map of our futuresky, more a container for the things we will have to think about and the legislation we will have to put inplace if we are going to live with drones in our cities.

Throughout the project we keep coming back to the idea of the network gaining a kind of physicalautonomy, the diagram was one way of exploring this from a systems level. It was also a key aspect of ourresearch, and has existed in one form or another since the conception of the project.

As we started researching drone technology, its limitations and potential, and then thinking about dronesmoving through our cities, we started mapping out what rules and infrastructure would be needed support

this technology. We took inspiration from current air traffic control rules, urban traffic management anddata packets moving through networks. We also considered access rights to different areas of the the cityand how they might relate to access rights in a digital network.

Cartographies of the Sky, we hope, addresses some important questions around theterritoriality and control in civic airspace. How does this space work, how does it getdivided who owns the vast expanse of sky above our heads?

As well as these more speculative explorations we also drew upon the growing number of real worldexample of how governments and corporations are attempting to navigate this space: Amazon recentlyasked the FAA for permission to test its Prime Air service, on the basis that they will use geo-fencing tokeep the drone in an electronic box below 125 metres. The Phantom DJIs no-fly zone system creates acurious technological and sovereignty precedent, preventing the flight of all Phantoms within a 15kilometre radius of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and of course the recent no-fly zone over Washington.The startup NoFlyZone is inviting members of the public to submit their location data so they can letprivate drone manufacturers know that they dont want a drone flying above their heads.

The diagram, we hope, addresses some important questions around the territoriality and control in civicairspace. How does this space work, how does it get divided, what are the vertical, digital infrastructuralcapabilities that cities will need, and ultimately who owns the vast expanse of sky above our heads?

The diagram will continue to respond to the shifts and changes in legal and regulatory frameworks. In factcurrently it remains impossible to make any sort of accurate diagram as the technology is such a movingtarget of invention.

One detail that I found quite interesting in the blurb on the mailman courier dronesdetails how an Amazon-like drone delivery service goes under, their fleet andinfrastructure are sold in a fire sale, and then is redeployed by another company for supersecure SSD drive data delivery. This scenario reads as if you are thinking several stepsahead rather one or two. Broadly speaking, how did you model each of your types of dronesand their respective histories?

We headed into the project without much in depth knowledge about drones so it ended up being a long,intense process, but to summarize that process; it started, as with many of our projects, with a lot ofresearch. Looking at the history of unmanned aerial vehicles, the state of current technical developmentand what is under development for the near future. We then looked at broader cultural and social trendsto what other forces at play might start to intersect and influence future development.

All this was then mapped out using a variety of tools and methods to give us a solid place to start the

creative process of extrapolating scenarios, a process we often call futurescaping. In this instance we alsoworked with a talented friend and writer, Tim Maughan, to flesh out and give life to the drone scenarios.

In parallel to this we also began working with the technologytesting, building, flying, crashing andrebuilding many different drones, drone platforms and assistive technologies. I think this is important tomention here because this process became a sort of primary research, allowing us get past much of thehype that surrounds drones and get a feel for the materiality of the technology. Where its real strengthsand weaknesses lie, rather than just take the claims of those invested in the future of drone technology atface value.

The five drones that we focused our attention on explore how deeply entwined our lives have become withartificial intelligence and large scale autonomous systems, often unknowingly so. Through models and thefilm, we gave life to these five drones. Simultaneously we continued discussions with Tim, whose richstories touch on their background and intent. The other five drones in the magazine are entirely Timsimagination and vision, and together they paint a rich picture of urban life with civilian drones.

A quarter of a way into Drone Aviary a provocation scrolls by. Lost in the concern that thedrone is an authoritarian instrument is the possibility that it might simultaneously be ademocratizing toolis this the hypothesis at the heart of your research into drones?

I dont think we could say its the hypothesis, but its certainly a point that we feel is important to make.

The quote is from Benjamin Wallace-Wellss brilliant piece Drones and Everything After.

One of the biggest challenge of building the drones was to figure out how they will defy gravity andactually fly. And once they do start flying, there is a complete and total collapse of the distance between usand the airspace surrounding us, as the drone becomes a new kind of disembodied prosthetic, allowing usto watch over the world with a little controller. Extreme acclivity can be exhilarating. It can make you feelboth alone and unrivalled. But this can also be simultaneously terrifying, as the drone can behaveerratically, either because of your own incompetency or technical failure, and can result in damage, fromdestroying expensive equipment to causing harm or injury to people and property.

As drones become cheaper to buy and easier to build, there will certainly be ademocratizing effect but on the other hand, we also know that if you are not paying forit you are the product.

Whatever the pros and cons, once you have this air-minded vantage point, you (citizens, corporations orgovernments) enter a position of strategic advantage and strength. A position that eludes to the magicaleffect of the pale blue dot, the overview effect and the change in cognitive ability. Chris Anderson says thatdrones can democratize the overview effect. The scale is obviously magnitudes smaller but the principle isthe same. They remind us that the truly remarkable thing is not looking up to marvel at the technology of aballoon or airplane or spaceship, its really what happens when you are up, and looking down.

So if we were to think about it from this perspective, as drones become cheaper to buy and easier to build,there will certainly be a democratizing effect, as more and more people will gain this overview effect. Buton the other hand, we also know that if you are not paying for it you are the product. So as off-the-shelfdrones become cheaper, as we allow them to enter our homes and our lives, these cheap, toy-like pets,could be versions of the Instadrone, allowing anyone with a smartphone to share unforgettable memoriesfrom the cloud using the Instadrone app. In this scenario, whilst its democratizing, it could also be justanother instance where we use our personal data as currency in exchange for using these technologies.

Of course that is one potential scenario. There are numerous examples of how this easy to buy and usetechnology will change the citizen journalism, the way we access news stories, cope with disasters andtreat medical emergencies. Our ambition is to show this messy, complex, ambiguous nature of thetechnology.

Thats a noble ambition! Congrats again on the launch of SuperfluxI love it when anexperimental publication comes together. Any final comments?

We want to thank Warren Ellis, Tim Maughan, Jon Flint, Sam Conran, Katarina Medic, Dillon Froelich,Alexandra Fruhstorfer, and Georgina Bourke for their great contributions to this work.

Superflux | Order Superflux Magazine, Issue 1