A different view

#NotABugSplat
Pakistan (Abbottābad)

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are part of daily life for kids in Pakistan, Iraq and Yemen. An estimated 4,000 people have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan since 2003, and drones have become embedded into people’s minds, grafittied onto walls, woven into rugs and even appear in their dreams. In a field in North-Western Pakistan is #NotABugSplat, the biggest anti-drone artwork in the world.

The image is the same size as a nine-story building and is clearly visible to drone operators. From thousands of metres above the ground, satellites and cameras pick up the photo of a child’s face, whose family was killed in a drone strike. The military slang ‘bug splat’ refers to the circle drawn by computer programs to estimate collateral damage, a term which has evolved to include the people hit by a strike – the ‘bugs’ themselves.

#NotABugSplat was launched by the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, and created by a group of artists from the global art project Inside Out. Started in 2011 by artist JR, giant portraits are pasted onto walls and buildings all over the world, conveying powerful messages about the people and places in which they are located. The project’s ongoing Women Are Heroes installation highlights the dignity of women who occupy crucial roles in society, and find themselves victims of war, street crime, sexual assault, and religious and political extremism. A more recent work has been in Cucúta, Colombia which highlights the plight of Colombian people deported from Venezuela.

The #NotABugSplat image has become an international symbol for protest against drone warfare and has been circulated millions of times on social media, reaching every corner of the globe from Siberia to Patagonia – deconstructing war and its methods in a single image.

Written by

Lauren Burrows, Writer / Researcher, Atlas of the Future (07 October 2015)

Project leader

Ali Rez and Assam Khalid, Founders, #NotABugSplat

Support the Atlas

We want the Atlas of the Future media platform and our event to be available to everybody, everywhere for free – always. Fancy helping us spread stories of hope and optimism to create a better tomorrow? For those able, we'd be grateful for any donation.

Creative Commons License

Comments

 

Take me somewhere
Close
Take me somewhere
Close
Data Protection Act: LOPD.
In compliance with Organic Law 15/1999, of 13 of December, on Personal Data Protection, and the development of Rules of Procedure, approved by Royal Decree 1720/2007, of 21 of December, Atlas of the Future subscribers may be required to provide Personal Data, which will be included in a file owned by Democratising The Future Society SL. Such file is duly incorporated in the Spanish Data Protection Agency and protected in compliance with the security measures established in the applicable legislation. Subscribers may exercise, at any time, their rights of access, rectification, cancellation and/or opposition regarding their Personal Data. The subscriber shall notice their will, either under written form addressed to Democratising The Future Society SL, Ref. LOPD, Calabria, 10 6-3 08015 - Barcelona (Spain) and/or by e-mail, clicking here. Also, the subscriber shall communicate Atlas of the Future any modifications of their Personal Data stored, so that the information stored by Atlas of the Future remains at all times updated and error-free.
Close
Get World-changing projects and news in your inbox weekly.