Phantom Pro
Phantom Pro (2018-2023) explores the aftermath and reconstruction of Mosul, a city seized by ISIS in 2014 and subsequently destroyed in the battle to defeat them. It utilises the collection, transfer and interpretation of digital photographs using consumer technologies now used in warfare and the construction industries.
Over the last decade there has been an intensification of conflict within vertical space – the politics of verticality – with the development and availability of mass-produced consumer drones. This new hybrid drone warfare has affected peer on peer state conflict – the war in Ukraine – and allowed non state groups – ISIS and individuals – the ability to operate and effect new types of outcomes within the vertical paradigm.
In 2016, ISIS weaponised consumer drones for the first time and used them extensively during the battle of Mosul. The group modified easily available Chinese drones with munitions and effectively used them to surveil, target and kill the cities inhabitants and Iraqi army. At the same time consumer drones revolutionised the construction industry’s ability to land survey and remotely monitor building projects with the use of photogrammetry – overlapping photographs to create 3D models – a process used since WW1 by militaries for intelligence and targeting purposes and now by corporations for mapping.
Giles Price served in Kurdistan / northern Iraq with the UK military at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, helping the Kurds defend themselves from Saddam Hussain after their uprising against him. Price returned to the region in 2017 on assignment for The New York Times Magazine to cover wrongly targeted airstrike sites in and around Mosul hit during the battle to defeat ISIS. Since 2018 he has been working via WhatsApp with Ayar Rasool, a local drone pilot.
The landscapes documented in this work show key sites of ISIS dominance, like the old town in the west of the city, which was their strong hold and area of most intense fighting, the Al Nuri Mosque and Al Tahira Church which were destroyed by them as acts of religious vengeance, the Al Jazeera recreational park situated on an island in the Tigris river and used by them to execute people and throw their bodies into the river, and the Al Batoul Hospital which was used as a headquarters. These areas are mixed with commercial and residential sites to show the reconstruction and continuation of life after this traumatic period in the city’s history.
Phantom Pro employs the same model of drone used by ISIS, with photos collected and sent by Ayar, then interpreted using consumer photogrammetry software. The history and development of photogrammetry is embedded within the industrial military complex, but the technology is not deterministic. The work uses these imperfections metaphorically, leaving the computational processes and other software artifacts visible along with the outlining data points which resemble fragmented traces but also have a sense of speed akin to explosions or assembling’s.
The work explores the tensions within how these technologies are used and challenges and extends traditional approaches to documenting conflict and aftermath while also commenting on the recurring histories of Iraq and the wider the region.
Phantom Pro (2018-2023) explores the aftermath and reconstruction of Mosul, a city seized by ISIS in 2014 and subsequently destroyed in the battle to defeat them. It utilises the collection, transfer and interpretation of digital photographs using consumer technologies now used in warfare and the construction industries.
Over the last decade there has been an intensification of conflict within vertical space – the politics of verticality – with the development and availability of mass-produced consumer drones. This new hybrid drone warfare has affected peer on peer state conflict – the war in Ukraine – and allowed non state groups – ISIS and individuals – the ability to operate and effect new types of outcomes within the vertical paradigm.
In 2016, ISIS weaponised consumer drones for the first time and used them extensively during the battle of Mosul. The group modified easily available Chinese drones with munitions and effectively used them to surveil, target and kill the cities inhabitants and Iraqi army. At the same time consumer drones revolutionised the construction industry’s ability to land survey and remotely monitor building projects with the use of photogrammetry – overlapping photographs to create 3D models – a process used since WW1 by militaries for intelligence and targeting purposes and now by corporations for mapping.
Giles Price served in Kurdistan / northern Iraq with the UK military at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, helping the Kurds defend themselves from Saddam Hussain after their uprising against him. Price returned to the region in 2017 on assignment for The New York Times Magazine to cover wrongly targeted airstrike sites in and around Mosul hit during the battle to defeat ISIS. Since 2018 he has been working via WhatsApp with Ayar Rasool, a local drone pilot.
The landscapes documented in this work show key sites of ISIS dominance, like the old town in the west of the city, which was their strong hold and area of most intense fighting, the Al Nuri Mosque and Al Tahira Church which were destroyed by them as acts of religious vengeance, the Al Jazeera recreational park situated on an island in the Tigris river and used by them to execute people and throw their bodies into the river, and the Al Batoul Hospital which was used as a headquarters. These areas are mixed with commercial and residential sites to show the reconstruction and continuation of life after this traumatic period in the city’s history.
Phantom Pro employs the same model of drone used by ISIS, with photos collected and sent by Ayar, then interpreted using consumer photogrammetry software. The history and development of photogrammetry is embedded within the industrial military complex, but the technology is not deterministic. The work uses these imperfections metaphorically, leaving the computational processes and other software artifacts visible along with the outlining data points which resemble fragmented traces but also have a sense of speed akin to explosions or assembling’s.
The work explores the tensions within how these technologies are used and challenges and extends traditional approaches to documenting conflict and aftermath while also commenting on the recurring histories of Iraq and the wider the region.
