Re-figuring Gilbert the Drone

Abstract

In the paper we offer a story of re-figuring a consumer drone as a way of "living with monsters". If drones are "monstrous", what potentials might lie in re-framing them as more benign, civic, or even perhaps enchanted? Based on a field study of work at a makerspace, we present re-figuring as a process of reflecting, interacting and imagining the function of a drone, using gradually developing intuitions as well as an emergent felt 'sense' of the drone in practice. Using an analytic trajectory broadly based on philosophies of affect, we suggest how felt relations to technology can potentially become further involved in a critical move towards re-figuring "monstrous" technologies.