(United States of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

 

Statement

Brand new technology: Maneuvered directly from your desk. Unlimited reach. Go wild.

About

The last few years the USA has radically changed the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The invention in itself is not a new thing, but was first introduced as missiles and flying diversion and practice targets during the World War II. With technological progress the UAVs of today has developed into fully armed and controllable airplanes, allowing the pilot to be located in a safe, office environment, while sentencing suspected terrorists to death in remote areas in the Middle East.

Since the USA doesn’t report any type of statistics these airstrikes are hard to cover, but there is no question that the use has increased drastically since 2004, carrying out operations in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. The precision capability of the UAV-strikes is today rigorously emphasized, which unfortunately doesn’t stop the number of civilian losses in this unmanned war.

The torrents depicted in this American flag symbolizes the increased use and the long tentacles of the superpower spreading far from it’s own borders. It is also a comment to a new kind of in-office maneuvered warfare, in which your enemy is nothing more than an image on a screen. Here visualized by an elevated (unmanned) paper-plane, made out of ordinary copy paper.

Installation, mixed media

Part of the show Reach, Galeria 3 Punts, Barcelona.

as installed and presented in Naked in Transit, Metáfora, May 2013.

Installation with threads and hot glue