The Art of Drone Warfare: Interview and Book Talk

Modern wars illustrate how the use of armed drones results in tremendous human anguish; technology has outstripped our ethics. The United Nations includes armed drones as one of their “targets” for Disarmament Week, ranging from 24-30 October. Currently piloted by human judgement, what will be lost when these weapon systems become fully autonomous?

L’AiR Arts continues to promote international solidarity and peace through cross-cultural dialogue and exchange. In honour of Disarmament Week, we’ve invited artistic accomplices and professional creatives Malik Ameer Crumpler and Matthew James Jones to discuss Jones’s upcoming book: “Predators, Reapers and Deadlier Creatures.”

​​Saturday, October 26, 15h-17h; talk starts 15h30 (in English)
​Atelier 11 Cité Falguière 75015 Paris

​RSVP

​The novel hinges on a drone operator in Afghanistan who doesn’t want to kill. As terrifying new technologies scar the face of war, killing gets easier and easier, like a video game. A sanitized system of communication allows for new “targets” to be acquired, and their coordinates transmitted, completely without grief.

Accustomed to ranting on long, coffee-fueled, and uncensored walks across Paris, Malik and Matt will cover a lot of (under)ground, unpack taboo topics, and topple sacred cows: PTSD, geopolitics, Jungian philosophy, gender issues, mid-life crises, literature, human nature, music, Paris, writing communities, trauma, and the most important question of all: how do we make killing difficult again? 

Yet, ultimately, every show is for the audience; your impossible questions, and other forms of participation, will be enthusiastically encouraged. 

He wanted me to shore up his crumbling tower of lies, years of Army propaganda, exercises, ugly banter, man-posturing, gruelling physical training. Take him back to a pre-grief world where a soldier could do the good work of killing without reflection, proper little killbots.

About the speakers

Since he left the military a decade ago, Matt Jones has devoted himself to writing: his novel, “Predators, Reapers and Deadlier Creatures” is forthcoming from Double Dagger Books in March 2025. Represented by Tracy Crow Literary Agency, this work has also received a Canada Council for the Arts grant. Further, he has published poetry, creative nonfiction, chapbooks and short stories.

As a spoken word artist and storyteller, he has performed in multiple countries, including two tours in England, and spoken at panel discussions and charitable readings. A consummate community builder, he has worked as the editor of three literary magazines, as the artistic director of an international poetry festival, and as the organizer of the by-donation Write Time Workshop. He currently teaches leadership at the École Militaire and creative writing at SciencesPo in Paris. 

​Malik Ameer Crumpler is a poet, composer, curator, editor & professor involved in over 65 albums, several GlitchArt films, Artbooks, literature anthologies & 9 books of Poetry.  Originally from Oakland, California Malik has lived in Paris since 2016 after 12 years in NYC where he gained an MFA in Creative Writing from L.I.U. Brooklyn after co-founding, hosting, curating & editing several readings, exhibitions, symposiums & online journals Madmenscalling, Those That This & Visceral Brooklyn.

​Currently, Malik is an Editor-at-Large for The Opiate, moderating several events while lecturing & teaching Creative Writing & Advanced English at several Universities in Paris, France (SciencesPo, Paris College Of Arts, Pôle universitaire Léonard-de-Vinci as well as lecturing on African American Creative Arts Networks in Paris with Access Global). His most recent Artbook of poems & non-poems entitled “...&?” will soon have an experimental album of poetry & music to accompany it.

Cover image: In situ installation Baiser russe by Ukrainian Artist, Vasyl Grubliak, Atelier 11, February 2023