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“I Believe That Drones Can Be Used for Good, I Believe That They Can Be Transformative” – A Video Interview With Johnny Miller

For a long time, drones were a) very expensive and b) almost exclusively used for spying, instilling fear, and killing people. This has significantly changed in recent years. While there's–naturally–still a massive market for so-called military UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), drone production for the civil sector has increased as well: Several tech companies now offer peaceful flying gadgets that feature high quality propellers and cameras and are available for less than 1000 euros. Simultaneously, drones have become favorite tools for a dedicated scene of journalists, artists, and media innovators all over the world. One of them is Johnny Miller.

It was through our Multidrone project and Deutsche Welle's annual Global Media Forum that we first met Johnny in June 2018. He's a photographer, a drone geek, an NGO activist–and a very nice guy who's always happy to share. In the video embedded below, Johnny tells you everything you need to know about his work and ambition: He talks about the award winning Unequal Scenes project, the African Drone organization, and also addresses a number of more general questions regarding the social, political, and technical impact of drone usage in the media sphere. We hope you enjoy the conversation:

DW headquarters (Bonn) in October 2018. Interviewer: Alexander Plaum Technical setup: Ruben Bouwmeester and Eva Lopez Video editing: Eva Lopez Special thanks to: Wilfried Runde and Tilman Wagner

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