A Centre for Drones and Culture seminar talk (hybrid)
Speakers: Sebastian Vandermersch (Bellingcat) and Nathan Walker (Airwars)
Location: Alison Richard Building, University of Cambridge, 7 West Road, CB3 9DP (and on Zoom)
Lunch from 11:30am-12pm GMT in the Atrium
Seminar from 12-1:30pm GMT in Room S2 (2nd Floor)
Free and open to all
About the event:
How can we make visible the human consequences of increasingly automated and remote forms of warfare? Bringing together investigative journalism, open-source intelligence, and visual storytelling, this event explores how emerging weapons technologies and AI-driven targeting systems are transforming contemporary conflict, and how visual methods can hold them to account. There will be two talks:
The Air War in Mali: Investigating Drone Strikes and Cluster Munitions (Sebastian Vandermeersch, Bellingcat)
This talk will examine the growing use of air power in Mali and its impact on civilians. Drawing on Bellingcat investigations, it will explore how open-source techniques, including geolocation, satellite imagery, weapons identification and visual analysis, can be used to document drone strikes and cluster munition attacks, establish what happened on the ground and investigate allegations of civilian harm in an increasingly opaque conflict.
Anatomy of a Kill Chain (Nathan Walker, Airwars)
“Anatomy of a Kill Chain” is a new visual project illustrating how AI is transforming every aspect of war - and how militaries are offloading life and death decisions to flawed technologies. A partnership between AI experts, conflict specialists, and storytellers, the piece uses a fictional narrative to outline real AI systems being used in warfare - including in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran - and how they are liable to fail. The talk will discuss the automated killchain as well as the process of visualising a complicated subject for a broad audience.
Speaker biographies:
Sebastian Vandermeersch is a researcher at Bellingcat, specialising in terrorism and civilian harm in conflict. He has investigated violence and human rights abuses in the Middle East and West Africa. He previously worked at BBC Verify, the Centre for Information Resilience, and the International Criminal Court.
Nathan Walker is Airwars’ Visual Lead, working in our Investigations and Accountability Unit. Having worked as a digital designer and frontend developer for several years as a freelancer and in various design agencies, Nathan joined Airwars in January 2024.
This event is sponsored by the Centre for Drones and Culture through a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/W010429/1).