Thursday, December 15, 2016

NOT A GAME

Not a Game Gouache and watercolour on paper 56 x 75.6 cm 2016


In Not a Game I have painted a colourful Reaper drone armed with four hellfire missiles and two guided missiles. Its wide area surveillance system is monitoring and recording the terrain. The footage it collects is relayed to other monitoring devices and sensors. A cityscape, a country homestead, and a drone's ground control station and satellite antenna are dotted along this terrain. The satellite antenna is connected to the communication satellite, a geostationary satellite parked at near 40,000 km above the Earth . The orbiting GPS satellite is connected to the drone, tracking it and enabling remote piloting. The need for connectivity to operate a drone is apparent. Connectivity, though, also enables the collection of data from our personal and public digital devices. These cyber pathways are invisible, pervasive and ubiquitous. It is not a game. 

A tree-of-life on the far right monitors the entire scenario. The cosmic landscape, in which the tree is situated, indicates a prevailing cosmological perspective - if attention is paid to it.


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Remote Control (below) completed earlier this year, also depicts the connectivity currently needed to operate a drone and its various payloads.


Remote Control Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016 


Cheers,
Kathryn

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