Drones & Honeycombs is a project developed with The New Institute in Rotterdam. It aims to increase understanding of civil and public space in times of war and reconstruction as well as far-reaching technological and social change. It also spotlights and examines the ethical and moral issues that accompany these developments. The Netherlands is famous for its professional design practice, both small- and large-scale. It is also known for its humanitarian missions and investments in development projects around the world. In recent decades, concepts of war and peace, which divided the world into war zones and the civilian world – the ballroom and the battlefield – has fallen apart, or rather unified. War has become part of public space.
Today we witness a growing process of militarisation, carried out by the very institutions that were established to prevent war. It is taking place within the context of peace missions and the reconstruction of affected regions.
The project is divided into a series of workshops and seminars.
The workshops under the title “COMPOUNDS” are done in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Defence and of Foreign Affairs with the aim to analyse the architecture and landscape of peacekeeping missions; reduce and turn the physical footprints of these mission into valuable resource for the local communities.
The seminars under the title ‘The Drone Salon” aim at exploring the current transitions that are taking place in the battlefields, warfare doctrines and technological innovation and the impact these have on the civic realm. The seminars are done in collaboration with DPR-Barcelona, Ethel Baraona Pohl, and with Studio-X, Columbia University.
Dates of first public presentation of the project
3/5/2014 a presentation of Drones and Honeycombs at The New Institute
The drone Salon
23/5/2014 from 10AM-1PM at The New Institute
The workshops
The first workshop took place on 3 March 2014, the second workshop will take place on 12 June 2014.
The result will be made available in the fall of 2014.
