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. 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