The Kill Cloud as Corporate Takeover
The Convergence of The Military, Venture Capitalism and Technology Start-Ups
Workshop at Cables of Resistance
Sat April 11, 13:00–15:30, FMP1
With Lisa Ling, Joana Moll, Tatiana Bazzichelli
👉More info & tickets here
📃Read Lisas and Joanas research from Investigating the Kill Cloud here
Military systems are increasingly traversing private infrastructure while financed by venture capital. Tech executives can now exert influence within the Kill Cloud to protect their interests. The workshop examines machinations fostering and reshaping global power dynamics, embodied militarisation, AI, warfare, and resistance.
The infrastructure of military control is no longer owned and operated under the sole domain of the military and its national security or intelligence partners, it is now operated predominantly by Silicon Valley elites. This is the first time in history that executives from tech corporations own and can control military weapons infrastructure without military or federal government input. We saw this during the Crimea Drone Attack in 2022, Musk refused a Ukrainian government request ordering shutdown of Starlink satellite service. This privatised, networked military ecosystem – described by Lisa Ling and Cian Westmoreland as the Kill Cloud – dominates warfare through globally connected technologies. The workshop brings together Lisa Ling, Tatiana Bazzichelli, and Joana Moll to analyse the Kill Cloud’s role in fostering technofascism and reshaping power. Ling focuses on the expansive nature of technology throughout multiple military domain and the machinations of domination by Silicon Valley. Joana Moll presents how digital technologies inscribe ideologies through the body, examining the convergence of labor, leisure, and militarisation within the body-device assemblage. Bazzichelli presents the Disruption Network Institute, a Berlin-based initiative investigating AI as a lethal weapon and researching the ethical, social, and political effects of algorithmic warfare, surveillance, and data control. The aim is to engage participants in developing strategies of resistance.
Lisa Ling (Whistleblower, Technologist, former Technical Sergeant, US Air Force Drone Surveillance Programme, US)
Lisa Ling began her military career in the 1990s as a medic and nurse. She participated in the operations, maintenance, and security of networked communications technology. Her Combat Communications Squadron was assimilated into the Drone Program and moved to Beale Air Force Base in California. After her military service, she travelled to Afghanistan to see first-hand the effects of what she participated in. She has a BA in History from UC Berkeley.
Joana Moll (Artist and Researcher, Professor of Networks, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, ES/DE)
Joana Moll is a Barcelona/Berlin-based artist and researcher whose work critically explores how techno-capitalist narratives shape the alphabetization of machines, humans, and ecosystems. Her research focuses on Internet materiality, surveillance, profiling, interfaces, and energy. She has presented her work at major institutions, museums, universities, and festivals worldwide. She is currently a professor in the Art Department at KHM in Cologne.
Tatiana Bazzichelli (Founder and Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE)
Tatiana Bazzichelli is the founder and director of Disruption Network Lab (disruptionlab.org), a Berlin-based nonprofit organisation that exposes the misconduct and wrongdoing of the powerful. Her focus of work is whistleblowing and digital culture. Since 2023 she has also directed the Disruption Network Institute, a research hub focusing on AI and warfare (disruption.institute). She holds a PhD in Information and Media Studies and has published several books, including Whistleblowing for Change (2021), Networked Disruption (2013), Disrupting Business (2013) and Networking (2006).