Observed from above, composited from below, calculated from a distance. Enhanced by algorithmic processes and analytics, remote sensing practices embedded in networks and geolocation technologies have been key in establishing how we define geographies. Remote sensing practices subject all movements to the conditions of the calculative gaze and the spatialisation of algorithmic operations, registering and engendering a set of structuring principles and determining how places are controlled. Layering their surveilled region with countervailing networks, scales and forces these practices not only inform, they also violate.

In this panel, Charmaine Chua, Heba Y. Amin, and AbdouMaliq Simone discuss the political impact of remote sensing and question how to organise and operate along – despite – their scalar lines of operation.