Conceptualizing Screen Practices

Together wir my colleagues Kathrin Friedrich, Christian Stein and Michael Friedman I have edited a volume on head-mounted displays. It is published as a special issue of media tropes entiteled: Conceptualizing Screen Practices: How Head-Mounted Displays Transform Action and Perception. Media Tropes is a highly recommendable, peer-reviewed interdisciplinary eJournal devoted to the study of media and mediation and has a committed editorial team. In the special issue we discuss modalities of interaction and space, design requirements, and the demand for practical knowledge in handling HMDs. This is a crucial undertaking for a critical analysis that could also inform developers and users who seek a broader, as well as a deeper, understanding into how new display technologies reshape visual practices. (Image: Ivan Sutherland, early head-mounted display, 1967)

 

Dronegun

Finally for consumer level: DroneGun provides a safe countermeasure against a wide range of drone models. It allows for a controlled management of drone payload such as explosives, with no damage to common drones models or surrounding environment due to the drones generally responding via a vertical controlled landing on the spot, or returning back to the starting point
(assisting to track the operator). Via: droneshield.com

Seminar on imaging and interaction in surgical practice

Together with my colleagues Thomas Picht, Kathrin Friedrich, Matthias Bruhn, Kirsten Ostherr, Rebekka Lauer and Anna Roethe I will teach an interdisciplinary seminar on medical imaging at Charité University Hospital in the winter term 2016/17. My part of the course will focus on experimental imaging technology in medical practice with a particular focus on virtual and augmented reality applications as well as on 3D simulation in surgical practice.

Course general outline: The first, general, objective of the module is to sensitize students to the extraordinary significance of the ‚image‘ in modern medicine and particularly in surgery. Images serve as an imperative impetus to action within the routine of clinical medicine. The second general objective of the module is to empower future doctors to apply medical imaging in the best interest of their patient. The ability to critically analyze images is a pre-condition for this. Three topics will help to impart this knowledge: first, comparative analysis of the media in question and the associated technical procedures and modalities of representation; second, a historical classification of the aforementioned media and procedures, etc.; and third, an overview of places and times at which images become effective tools. This will enable an understanding of the mechanisms that have implicated images in a range of processes. The third objective underpinning the module, alongside the fundamental teaching of image analysis, is the mediation of current technical developments in the field of medical imaging – something which must be a continually updated. The focus here is on the increasing synchronization of image and body in 3D; augmented and virtual reality applications; and the progressive distancing of staff and patient in the areas of pre-planning, remote control and robotics. Students will be expected to acquire the necessary professionalism when working with images so that, both now and in the future, they can make best use of medical imaging opportunities. Theories referred to in the training blocks will be set alongside corresponding clinical case studies as part of the interactive discussion of cases. Supervised patient examinations, patient-side teaching and OR work shadowing will also be offered in relevant areas.

Der Blick als Waffe

Ich habe einen Essay mit dem Titel „Der Blick als Waffe. Zum prekären Verhältnis von Transparenz und Opazität bei Helmdisplays“ für den Ausstellungsband +ultra. gestaltung schafft wissen beigetragen.

Abstract: Im Gegensatz zu opaken Bildflächen verändert sich das Gezeigte bei transparenten Bildern in Abhängigkeit vom Standpunkt des Betrachters. Auf diesem Darstellungsprinzip basieren vor allem bildschirmbasierte Praktiken, die Formen der Beobachtung auch jenseits eines genuin Bildlichen integrieren. Dazu gehören insbesondere sogenannte Head-Mounted Displays, etwa Smartglasses wie Microsofts Hololens, aber auch Helmet Displays von Kampfpiloten oder Kontaktlinsendisplays. Sie zeichnen sich allesamt durch eine Bildfläche aus, die fortwährend zwischen Transparenz und Opazität oszilliert. Die Überlagerung des natürlichen Sichtfelds des Betrachters mit visuellen Darstellungen suggeriert einerseits ein Durchschauen im wörtlichen Sinne von perspicere und entspricht andererseits dem Blick auf ein Artefakt. Diese Wahrnehmungssituation korrespondiert mit einem Bildverständnis, bei dem das Bild dem Betrachter nicht mehr als opake Fläche gegenüber tritt, das seine Materialität zu verschleiern sucht, sondern im Gegenteil das, was hinter ihm liegt ebenso zu sehen gibt. Anschauung und Darstellung treten hier in eine hybride Gemeinschaft. Am Beispiel der medialen Produktions- und Rezeptionsbedingungen der Helmdisplays von PilotInnen des Kampfflugzeugs von Typ „Eurofighter Typhoon“ untersucht der Beitrag die Verschränkung von Formen der Beobachtung und Repräsentation. Dabei soll gezeigt werden, wie transparente Bildschirme eine synthetische Form des Sehens etablieren, in der Visio und Visualisierung technisch und funktional zusammenfallen. (Bild: Moritz Queisner)

  • Download Der Blick als Waffe via Academia.
  • Citation: Moritz Queisner (2016) Der Blick als Waffe. Zum prekären Verhältnis von Transparenz und Opazität bei Helmdisplays. In: Nikola Doll, Horst Bredekamp, Wolfgang Schäffner (Hrg.) +ultra. gestaltung schafft wissen. E. A. Seemann, Leipzig, S. 293–299.

Medical Screen Operations

I published a paper about the use of head-mounted displays in surgery in an special issue on screen practices. Abstract: Based on case studies in minimally invasive surgery, the paper investigates how head-mounted displays (HMDs) transform action and perception in the operating theater. In particular, it discusses the methods and addresses the obstacles that are linked to the attempt to eliminate the divide between vision and visualization by augmenting the surgeon’s field of view with images. Firstly, it analyzes how HMDs change the way images are integrated into the surgical workflow by looking at the modalities of image production, transmission, and reception of HMDs. Secondly, it examines how HMDs change where and in which situations images are used by looking at screen architectures in minimally invasive surgery. Thirdly, it discusses the impact of HMD-based practice on action, perception, and decision-making, by examining how HMDs challenge the existing techniques and routines of surgical practice and, therefore, call for a new type of image and application-based expertise.

Image Guidance. Bedingungen bildgeführter Operation

Gemeinsam mit Kathrin Friedrich und Anna Roethe habe ich den Band Image Guidance. Bedingungen Bildgeführter Operation herausgegeben. Er erscheint in der Buchreihe Bildwelten des Wissens, die aus der Perspektive verschiedener Disziplinen untersucht, in welchen Kontexten Bilder ihre konstruktiven und instruktiven Eigenschaften entfalten, auf welchen historischen und theoretischen Entwicklungen sie beruhen und welchen unhintergehbaren Beitrag die konkrete Form visueller Werkzeuge für das Denken und die Erkenntnis leistet. Die Reihe wird von Claudia Blümle, Matthias Bruhn und Horst Bredekamp herausgegeben.

Abstract: Bilder zeigen nicht nur, sondern fordern zu Handlungen auf und bedingen diese. Die zunehmende Verschaltung von Technologien, Körpern und Objekten durch visuelle Schnittstellen wie Graphical User Interfaces, Touchscreens oder Augmented-Reality-Anwendungen macht Betrachtende zuallererst zu Benutzerinnen und Benutzern. Derartige Verknüpfungen von Bildmedium und Operation finden sich etwa in medizinischer Planungssoftware, visuell navigierten Drohneneinsätzen und Rapid-Manufacturing-Verfahren in Architektur und Produktentwicklung. Planen, Navigieren und Intervenieren sind nur mehr in Kenntnis eines entsprechenden handlungsbezogenen Bildwissens durchführbar. Um die untrennbare Einheit von Darstellungs- und Handlungslogik in bildgeführten Operationen aufzuzeigen, bedarf es einer disziplinenübergreifenden Reflexion. Unter dem Begriff image guidance diskutiert der vorliegende Band die ästhetischen, operationalen und epistemischen Bedingungen, unter denen Visualisierungen zu Medien der Steuerung und Handlungsanleitung werden. Die Beiträge analysieren image guidance als Darstellungs-, Wahrnehmungs- und Handlungsprinzip in Architektur, Gestaltung, Medizin, Computerspiel, Militär, Kulturgeschichte und Raumfahrt.

Mit Beiträgen von Aud Sissel Hoel, Sabine Ammon, Helena Mentis, Derek Gregory, Pasi Väliaho und Anderen.

  • Download: Inhalt und Vorwort Image Guidance. Bedingungen bildgeführter Operation.
  • Citation: Moritz Queisner, Kathrin Friedrich, Anna Roethe (Hrg.) (2016) Bildwelten des Wissens. Kunsthistorisches Jahrbuch für Bildkritik, Bd. 12.1: Image Guidance. Bedingungen bildgeführter Operation. Berlin: De Gruyter.

AoIR 2016: Internet Rules, Berlin Oct 5–8

AoIR 2016 is the 17th annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, a transdisciplinary gathering of scholars interested in the place of networked technologies in social processes. This year’s conference ist jointly hosted by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society and the Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research. AoIR 2016 will emphasize the relevance of the Internet in today’s culture and politics. The conference theme addresses the significance of the codes and rules that frame the Internet, as well as their playful circumvention, from technical protocols and popular platforms to the emerging, established, and contested conventions of online communities. Who are the actors both in practices of rule-making and rule-breaking, what are their motivations and resources, and how can their power relations and communicative figurations be described? How does the Internet influence the proliferation of the values that its platforms, services and infrastructures embody, and what spaces of creative resistance persist? How do various forms of technical, social, and cultural hacking subvert these orders?

The Body of War – Drones and Lone Wolves

An International Symposium
Lancaster University, 24–25 November 2016
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

  • David Cook, Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Rice University and author of Martyrdom in Islam (Cambridge).
  • Derek Gregory, Peter Wall Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia and author of Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror, and Political Violence (Routledge).
  • Adam Harvey, American artist working on surveillance, privacy, and biometrics, winner of the Future Greats Award 2014 for his Anti-Drone project (2013).

“The discriminatory concept of the enemy as a criminal and the attendant implication of justa causa run parallel to the intensification of the means of destruction and the disorientation of theaters of war. Intensification of the technical means of destruction opens the abyss of an equally destructive legal and moral discrimination. […] Given the fact that war has been transformed into a police action against troublemakers, criminals, and pests, justification of the methods of this “police bombing” must be intensified. Thus, one is compelled to push the discrimination of the opponent into the abyss.” Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth (1950)

13 November 2015: three suicide bombers blew themselves up near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, killing themselves and a bystander, and triggering a series of violent actions that caused 130 casualties. 15 November 2015: the President of France, François Hollande, after defying the attacks ‘an act of war’ by the Islamic State, launched a three-month state of emergency and ‘Opération Chammal’, a huge airstrike campaign against ISIL targets in Syria.

These two violent actions design a deformed and limitless theater of war, within which all distinctions and limitations elaborated by International Law seem to disappear. It is not merely the loss of the fundamental distinction between combatants and civilians, that both suicide bombers and airstrike bombings signal. In the current situation, all the fundamental principles that gave birth to the Laws of War seem to collapse: spatial and temporal limitations of hostilities, proportionality of military actions, discrimination of targets, weapons and just methods to use them. In this way, the ‘enemy’, from a juridical concept, is transformed into an ‘ideological object’; his figure, pushed to a climax from both these ‘invisible’ and ‘mobile’ fronts, becomes absolute and dehumanized. Hollande, Cameron and Obama’s unwillingness to use ground troops against the ‘uncivilized’ (Kerry2015) is mirrored by the ISIL call to intensify suicide missions against the ‘cowards’ (Dābiq, 12: 2015).

But what lies behind the asymmetric confrontation between airstrikes and ‘humanstrikes’, behind the blurring of the distinction between the state of war and state of peace? What notion of humanity are the physical disengagement of the Western powers (with their tele-killing via drones and airstrikes) and the physical engagement of suicide bom bers (ready to turn their bodies into a weapon) trying to convey? In other words, how and to what extent is there a connection between the automatization and biopoliticization of war operated by Western powers and the sacrificial nature of the conflict adopted by those who want to fight these powers?

In this second part of the “States of Exception” project, our intention is to explore these questions in order to map the crucial transformations of warfare, of its ethical principles and methods of engagement.