Five years ago, completely by chance, an invisible barrier that prevents drones from flying in the area was discovered around the Old City. 'Terra ex Machina,' presented at Jerusalem Design Week, reveals the powerful mechanisms controlling a conflicted urban space
The Old City of Jerusalem is among the most networked places in the world. Paradoxically it is also a black hole, since, as a photographic project currently on view at Jerusalem Design Week shows, what happens within it is not totally clear.
An invisible wall was discovered by Hagit Keysar, Ariel Caine and Barak Brinker by chance five years ago when the three ran into an obstacle while trying to document the area using aerial photography. “We realized that there is a kind of impediment that prevents drones from hovering upwards. Our drone simply refused to elevate, and a message appeared on its monitor saying that [the site] was a restricted flight zone,” recalls Keysar, a researcher and activist whose recent work has focused on the politics of airspace.
“Since the 1980s, there’s been special regulation regarding the airspace above the Old City and the surrounding neighborhoods,” adds Brinker, who specializes in drone photography. “It states that within an area of about 1.5 kilometers flight is permitted only above an altitude of a thousand feet. A kind of digital fence in the air was built around an invisible dome, and no aircraft is allowed to enter that space unless it has received permits of one kind or another.”
“The regulation isn’t enforced through external means,” says Keysar. “In other words, there’s almost no one whose job it is to stop drones and make sure the regulation is followed. It’s rather a system of coordinates embedded in the flight computers of most drones, which creates a kind of dome around the Old City and forces drones to stop. They run into a kind of invisible wall.”
The work in its current format as a video installation includes several elements. Our attention is focused on an almost static video image projected on the main wall
Keysar, Caine and Brinker’s photographic research project, Terra ex Machina, reveals the mechanisms of power that operate this invisible barrier and examines how technologies shape the perception of land and space in the modern age. The project uses this “blindness” to emphasize what must be seen. The three are presenting a prototype version of the project at Design Week, which runs through June 29, at Hansen House in Jerusalem.
“Part of the task we took upon ourselves was to try to exploit the loopholes, or the capabilities that this technology allows, to look back at it, confront it with reality and show the points where it is not free and doesn’t allow limitless navigation to anyone who so desires,” says Caine. “This and other technologies are part of broader systems of economics and politics and power relations. We wanted to show how this invisible technological wall emphasizes other walls that exist in Jerusalem – police, government, urban conflicts, volatile sites.”
Visual deception
The work in its current format as a video installation includes several elements. Our attention is focused on an almost static video image projected on the main wall. It provides a vague view of the Old City, through a puzzle made up of thousands of images captured by drones around the no-fly zone, images which were then processed using modeling software into a 3D model that highlights the dark space above the Temple Mount created by the invisible wall. The closer you get to the middle of the black hole, the more the details in the photo become blurred, marking areas of greater control, restriction, and supervision.
“This black hole is something that I can see, on the one hand, but is also completely a visual deception on the other,” says Keysar. “You can’t accomplish the same thing with the human eye, or with a camera from an airplane. It’s a kind of gaze created outside the fenced physical space, and it emphasizes the forbidden area, where photography is prohibited. While we don’t see this barrier that surrounds the Old City, drones absolutely do. That doesn’t make it any less real. In a way it makes it more so.”
"While we don’t see this barrier that surrounds the Old City, drones absolutely do. That doesn’t make it any less real. In a way it makes it more so.”
Brinker adds that “We as humans don’t have the metaphysical capabilities needed to move through walls, but a drone, which is a kind of aerial hubris, should allow us to do exactly that, to rise above things. Ostensibly, drones are supposed to allow everyone to see what they want.”
“We see drones as a magical tool that democratizes the view from above,” says Keysar. “They’re very popular, and a lot of people can afford to buy one, but the deeper we look into this, the more we realize that this technology isn’t necessarily democratic. It’s in fact a technology that is highly supervised and very controlled. This geographical fence is just one example, but there are many other forms of registering and tracking those who fly drones.
“This and other technologies are part of broader systems of economics and politics and power relations. We wanted to show how this invisible technological wall emphasizes other walls that exist in Jerusalem – police, government, urban conflicts, volatile sites.”
“We should also remember that this law does not apply to everyone equally. This is especially evident in the Old City of Jerusalem, where most residents are Palestinians. For example, Barak, who has a license to fly drones, can request a permit to fly in Jerusalem and even within the Old City no-fly zone, but Palestinians won’t even try because they have no chance of getting a flight permit. Through this geographical barrier and the exception of those who can penetrate it under certain circumstances, the restrictive experience of the Palestinians becomes even clearer. Last year, for example, a drone with a Palestinian flag was flown over the Damascus Gate area during the flag march and the police simply brought it down.”
Great potential
Ironically enough, while a kind of unofficial battle is being waged between the state and its citizens for control of Old City airspace, the upper hand is currently held by the Chinese corporation DGI, which controls a significant share of the drone market and whose name has been associated with some particularly undemocratic incidents. Two years ago, for example, the company was blacklisted by the United States for its alleged involvement in monitoring China’s Uyghur minority. DGI has denied the allegations. Moreover, last year it was accused by Ukraine’s digital minister and vice president, Mykhailo Fedorov, of being complicit in the Russian invasion of Ukraine because, he claimed, the Russian military uses its products. DGI denied that accusation as well.
“These technologies do allow citizens to conduct independent documentation. But on the other hand they are themselves developed by militaries or by really undemocratic elements,” says Caine. Keysar adds that private use of semi-pirated aerial photography allows citizens to gain a degree of freedom. “The state and the Chinese corporations that manufacture the drones still can’t completely neutralize this reality.”
The main image of the video installation is displayed on the main wall. Low display pedestals scattered around the exhibition show videos taken by civilians who flew balloons and kites over the Old City (these are not subject to the restrictions on regular aircraft), which are projected on them. These videos are an extension of Keysar’s doctoral dissertation, which dealt with mapping practices in conflicted urban spaces. It also considered civilian aerial photography as a tool with political potential, involving the public. “The idea of aerial photography by civilians holds great potential,” Keysar says. “The idea of our ongoing project is to develop a complete model of such civilian images, which would provide data and illuminate the black holes that exist today.”