"WWII AIRCRAFT" AND "MODERN WARPLANES"

Steyerl positions “the god-eye view” at the heart of her argument of groundlessness; technological advances formalize a floating observer, an alteration not benign, and in fact alters our collective consciousness and fundamental spatialization of self/other/world.

Her argument hinges upon her analysis of aerial views, where “retroactively, this virtual ground creates a perspective of overview and surveillance for a distanced, superior spectator safely floating up in the air. Just as linear perspective established an imaginary stable observer and horizon, so does the perspective from above establish an imaginary floating observer and an imaginary stable ground” (24). This specific part of her analysis resonates with W.G. Sebald’s commentary in his novel, Rings of Saturn, where “historical representation, it requires, a falsification of perspective. We, the survivors, see everything from above, see everything at once. But still we do not know."  Like the aerial pov provided by our technologies, it is a “falsification of perspective,” one that assumes an unwarranted and illusionary authority over its subject matter, resulting in an altered mode of perception. “Modern Warplanes” and "WWII Aircraft" enact this distortion by their form and content, linking Steyerl’s aerial perspective with historical narrativity and its vessels of storytelling. 

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Immediately, their form suggests a collection; it’s reference to history furthers that association into the archival and/or specimen collection. Its artifacts are airplanes, one of the first technological devices that truly enabled a “god’s-eye-view.” And here we are piecing them together from the same aerial perspective embedded in the archival form. Each aircraft as specimen in this collection; from afar, you cannot distinguish what country or pact held ownership. They follow an overarching linearity, lining up in rows, carefully abiding by the laws of the puzzles edge, and, where the erratic edges of the planes converse, almost perfectly fitting within each other. It signals a completed whole where everything has its place. Like any archive, the form aims to conceal its narration: what is not shown (there were more than 31 warplane types globally) why these specimens were chosen, ie. the gaps in its mortar. the archive’s illusion. “Modern Warplanes” subtly points to the holes within Modernist thought, embodying its illusion of comprehensive classification, the ultimate God’s-eye-view.