The Aesthetics of Disappearance: A Land Without People

In my presentation to the conference Sexuate Subjects: Politics, Poetics and Ethics I introduced some of the rich visual and theoretical material that has influenced and inspired my latest body of photographic and moving image work. In addition to other contemporary artists and filmmakers, I referred to a range of historic and archival material that has informed the work from the earliest experiments in photographic reconnaissance to the prominent role digital technology, aerial photography and satellite imagery now occupy in modern warfare. I touched on the related disciplines of forensic anthropology and archaeology and showed documentation from a number of site visits to locations in the US and the Middle East carried out during the development of the work.

Conference Organisers
Dr Peg Rawes, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Professor Jane Rendell, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
Dr Ana Araujo, Chelsea College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London
Professor Tamar Garb, Department of Art History, UCL
Luce Irigaray, Doctor in Philosophy and Director of Research in Philosophy at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientific, Paris
Professor Tim Mathews, Department of French, UCL
Dr Sharon Morris, Slade School of Art, UCL
Professor Mary Rawlinson, Stony Brook University, State University of New York
Professor Gail Schwab, Hofstra University, Long Island NY
Professor Michael Worton, Vice-Provost (Academic and International), UCL
The Luce Irigaray Circle

The Conference was financially supported by the following:
Bartlett School of Architecture Research Fund, UCL
Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art, History of Art Department, UCL
Department of French, UCL
Slade School of Fine Art, UCL
UCL’s Grand Challenge of Intercultural Interactions
Hofstra University, Long Island, New York
Stony Brook University, State University of New York
FATALE, KTH Stockholm