3d model

studio update

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Here are a couple of things I’m currently working on in the studio. Both represent some long term ideas coming together with many different mediums with the end goal of telling more stories about an envisioned dystopian future. I’ve been wanting to make a container for one of the Eternal Vision drone minis for some time. This first version came together well and has inspired some upgrades to the next version… I’ve also started a short book with text and images that showcases The Last Operator diorama. Below is an image from the book.

Endless Ocean Drone Container, laser cut plywood box with magnet closure for 3d printed figure.

 

The Last Operator, mixed media with 3D printing, 9 x 6 x 7 inches, 2024

Photographed with printed backdrop

The Last Operator

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The landscape is a natural barren wasteland. A near monochromatic world where everything is covered with a fine red dust. Not very different from the countless depictions of the planet Mars in science fiction stories. But this is not the red planet, this is Earth, in a not so distant future. Anything green in this place has long since dried out to dust and blown away. Here we find the last of the human advisors to the eternal vision drones, looking out over an all too familiar landscape. Just ahead is an old communications relay post. The operator sends the drone out ahead to get an advanced look at the area. Machine Vision reveals all, transmitted directly to the operator's AR (augmented reality) goggles from an encrypted link to the drone. Human vision, augmented by the electro-optical sensors of the drone in real time. Day or night, the night vision and thermal imaging of this system are extremely accurate.

These posts were once a symbol of the total surveillance state that prevailed during the end times. As part of a global deterrence system, these stations monitored all of the communications in the surrounding area. Now they are simple time capsules, waiting to be found. Most of the time they have been completely picked over by scavengers long ago. But this post somehow looks untouched. Is it possible that any of these systems still work? What will be gleaned from the remnants of civilization lost?

The Last Operator, mixed media with 3D printing, 9 x 6 x 7 inches, 2024

killer drones are here to stay

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Drone swarms are real and it is only a matter of time before we see them in action. This is something that has been in the works for a long time and is only now becoming more of a public conversation. The “collective mind” has been a theme of science fiction for even longer. If you are interested in learning more, check out these two written pieces about this reality.

New York Times piece on killer drones from 2023 HERE

Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists article from 2021 HERE

history repeats itself

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Actual history, an alternative history or even a completely invented timeline, they will all eventually repeat themselves. I find that as time passes there are patterns in what make. Specific ideas that are reoccurring, each time becoming more articulate as I learn new ways to recreate them. I am not just doing the same things over and over again. Both of these images are about similar repeating ideas, but are so very different in how they appear. They both evoke thoughts of searching, a form of future surveillance within a disorienting landscape. One presents an atmosphere so thick that it could be concealing any possible danger. The other creates a similar sense of unease within the landscape, however this time it is vastness that creates the sense of awe or unease. Both are simulated worlds seen through a screen. The first of the two image is of one of the original miniature drones. It was made of kit-bashing model parts and photographed in a glass tank with “practical effects”. The second image is a more recent version of a drone, 3D modeled with the dual intention to 3D print them for miniatures and to use them in digital animations. I think it is import to take note of these kinds of reoccurring ideas that we attempt to resolve or explain over and over again in the studio. Keep searching.

Inquest Model 006, Digital Photograph 2007

Endless Ocean Drone 1001a, 3D Rendering 2023