Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles, the sizes of which are as varied as their appearance and fields of application. They are used in numerous civilian areas, but above all are considered the most important war technology since the invention of the atomic bomb. Today's drones are the further development of unmanned balloons, remotely guided weapons, and model airplanes. Taking this historical starting point, the publication concerns itself with the use of drones and their hybrid function as toys, war technology, and an economic factor. As a technology that unifies absolute oppositions, its contradictory nature is demonstrated in all its facets: from a surveillance device to an instrument for resistance and protest, from an animated object in the animistic sense to their use in strategic warfare. The publication also examines future developments, such as questions on transhuman consciousness and artificial intelligence. Based on selected works by international artists, socially relevant issues are negotiated in a new way and discussed from a scientific perspective in a transdisciplinary manner.
About the Author: Claudia Emmert studied art history, German, and Romance philology at the University of Stuttgart and received her doctorate on the stage compositions and poems of Wassily Kandinsky. Between 2009-2014, she was founding director of the Kunstpalais in Erlangen. She held different lectureships in Bonn, Potsdam, Landshut, and Neuhausen auf den Fildern, as well as at the Institute of Art History of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Since 2014, she has been director of the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen. Jürgen Bleibler studied library science, art history, and German studies. Since 1998, he has been head of the Zeppelin department of the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen. He has published extensively and curated numerous exhibitions on the international development history of balloon and airship aviation, aircraft and rail vehicle construction, as well as on the history of technology, industry, and transportation in Friedrichshafen and the Lake Constance region. Dominik Busch studied literature, art, and art education in Wuppertal and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. During 2012-2014, he researched curatorial concepts of the 1990s at the University of Cologne. Thereafter, he worked for Esther Schipper, Berlin, and as an artist assistant for AA Bronson. During 2017-2018, he was a scientific trainee with the art department at the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen, where he has been head of the department for Public Discourse & Mediation since June 2018. He recently curated the exhibition IDEAL STANDARD. Speculations on Bauhaus today. Ina Neddermeyer studied art history, political science, and philosophy in Berlin and Florence. After her scientific traineeship at the Kunstpalais in Erlangen, she was the curator of the municipal collection Erlangen from 2013 to 2016. She has been curator and head of the art department at the Zeppelin Museum Friedrichshafen since 2016. She curated numerous exhibitions.
