Drone Daze

I spoke with historian Maggie Taft and Mahwish Chishty and others spoke about the many sides of drone technology during Drones R Us, a 2016 Chicago Humanities Festival event at the Art Institute of Chicago on Sunday, November 6.

Made up of technologies ranging from simple batteries to high tech software, the drone is a complicated machine that has captured our imagination in the 21st century. Both enemy and friend, it conjures up the lethal accuracy of military grade Predators and the quick-silver, toy-like cameras that captures breathtaking aerial shots.

I proposed the event, and partnered with the local drone firm AeroVista Innovations in to produce “Drone-Space Modulator” as The Muttering Sickness. The film is a 9-minute drone-shot film of his family playing under the thermal shadow of two drones. The film was shot at Highland Park’s Olsen Park, and is connected the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibit Moholy-Nagy: Future Present, about groundbreaking Hungarian and American artist Lazlo Moholy-Nagy.