I Can't Hear What You Can't See (2015)
Archive Designation: LandAcq5
Whether carrying surveillance-based or weaponized payloads, military drone technology cannot function effectively unless they see without being seen. This installation uses colorful RQ-1 and MQ-1 Predator drones as test subjects for airborne, sight-based camouflage that modulates between masking and revealing. These test subjects exist as floating models generated against color fields that are shaded in blue and transition to white and back again. Behind this study is a solitary military figure who, trained as an air weapons controller, bears some kind of relation to these drone’s camo-effectivity. The basis for this association is connected to the single image deemed effective and significant for gathering tactical information, which hangs above its accompanying pile of discarded surveillance picture-data. Amidst a backdrop of light gray latex paint (the actual color used to camouflage the undercarriage military aircraft) the organization of these artifacts propose a constant state of contradiction, whether based in our worlds constant state of war, or more approximately a conflict between the self and an Other, machinic or otherwise. Much like its military usage, the seeing-killing machine in this state becomes a stand-in for the self in conflict, expressed as an empty vessel that is remotely controlled.
*Installation images from exhibition at the Emmanuel College's Gallery 5.
(September 27 - October 31, 2015)
