Helmetcams, militarized sensation and 'Somatic War

Bibliographic Data

ID12914714
AuthorsKevin Mcsorley (0000-0001-5266-9310, University of Portsmouth, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume5
Issue1
Pages47-58
Publication date2012-06-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of War and Culture Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1752-6272 • E-ISSN: 1752-6280
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1386/jwcs.5.1.47_1
OpenAlexW2072973187
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited16

In stark contrast to the abstraction and radical disembodiment of hi-tech virtual war, the mediascape of contemporary counter-insurgency is increasingly dominated by material that is lo-fi, intimate, multi-sensory and decisively linked to the embodied experiences and risks of soldiering. In this article, I explore the visual grammar and affective logics of two recent prominent public mediations of the war in Afghanistan, both dominated by the use of video footage recorded from camcorders mounted on soldiers' helmets. Epitomized in this helmetcam footage, I suggest that it is through an emerging aesthetic regime of 'somatic war' – that foregrounds sensory immersion and real feeling, vital living and bodily vulnerability – that the endless war in Afghanistan is currently being made perceptible and palpable

Aesthetics · Art · Embodied cognition · Feeling · Insurgency · Political science · Spanish Civil War · Computer Science · Global Security and Public Health · History · Law · Military History and Strategy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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