feedback loop
total surveillance
natures inevitable redemption
I’ve never worked on a single piece for as long as I did on this one. When I started it in 2022 I had a crystal clear vision in my mind as to what I was making and how the final piece would look. Much to my surprise the more I worked, the more specific and articulate I got with materials the further I got from seeing the final piece come together. Each new detail set higher expectations for the next. The piece was certainly growing and evolving based on what it needed to become through my intuitions. However, once I started on the foliage, it was immediately evident to me that the end was near. My vision of a landscape that was truly overgrown and reclaimed by nature was finally coming together.
This piece depicts a moment in the Eternal Vision story in the far future. It speaks to the idea that all technology eventually becomes obsolete. The notion that nature will eventually prevail and reclaim all it once had. That decay and decomposition will always be beautiful. Nothing is free from the feedback loop of destruction and regrowth, not even technology.
Check back soon for a full gallery of images of the piece and a more elaborate explanation.
eternal vision drone 1002
Somewhere in a distant future, an omnipresent deterrence system reaches beyond the horizon. What was once sold on the utopian ideal of endless peace and security through total surveillance evolved into a system of total control. The presence of continuous observation forced whoever was left deep into hiding sometime long ago. Echoes of the present begin to emerge from the fragments.
eternal vision
anti-detection / anti-interception
It’s not very hard to imagine a future where AI and autonomous systems form a global surveillance system with the ability to see and act everywhere simultaneously. Drone swarms navigating at multiple levels of the atmosphere all around the world. We have always had an obsession with the idea of autonomous technology taking over, more specifically even the idea of killer robots. I do believe that we are on a technological trajectory that could lead to some of these imagined futures where we are all ruled by machines. Take a look at this New York Times article on the current state of this kind of technology. Right now there are still humans in the loop, but once we are taken out, things will evolve quickly. Who knows what the future will hold.
mysterious signals
For close to 50 years there have been mysterious signals emitting from areas within the former Soviet Union. There is much speculation as to the exact purpose of the signals. Some have been given specific names such as, The Buzzer, The Pip and The Squeaky wheel. Some of the stations have been located and identified. UVB-76 is one of these stations, still transmitting after having moved locations as recently as 2010. Most of what can be heard on the transmissions could be considered mechanical sounds, however there are reoccurring coded messages and the occasional voices speaking Russian. The theories of what these signals really are range from far fetched threats to hoaxes and accidents. The potential consequences of these signals may never be fully understood. Whatever the intention, it is clear that the manipulation of signals and frequencies only continues to increase globally. Currently there is something interfering with or jamming GPS signals in Eastern Europe. It has had a direct effect on civilian air travel in multiple nations. It is known that this jamming signal is coming from within the Russian territory of Kaliningrad. Take a look at these articles in POLITICO and Air & Space Force to learn more.
digital ghosts
corrupted data… incomplete file structure… error… error… error.
end of transmission
What does digital decay look like? As corruption compounds and data gets fragmented digital hallucinations begin to form. Paranoid thoughts of an artificial intelligence loosing its mind. Autonomous systems acting on lost transmissions and incomplete information drift towards total collapse.
aquatic observation
I’ve imagined the drone 1001a as the aquatic version of the original all seeing model 1001. This drone hovers quietly over the ocean or just on the very edge of the shore. It exists in the time of the endless ocean. Long after our technological demise, the inevitable consequences of climate changes come to light. There is nothing. A hopeless horizon extends in every direction. What fragments of land remain are scattered far apart with only empty waters between them. The detritus we leave behind will always remain. Now it is mostly seen as sun bleached plastics that float on the surface or wash up like an artificial red tide. This drone constantly patrols the water, searching for anything that breaks the pattern of emptiness. How far does the ocean reach? Is there anything at all beyond the horizon?
Right now this specific work is moving in two distinctly different directions. The physical 3D printed versions of the drone are being used to tell this part of the story through hyperreal miniature landscape dioramas/scenes. The 3D model has been painted, textured and animated, so it can appear digitally in augmented reality. Each direction has its own unique set of concerns and potentials. Together they will help tell a more articulate story that has the potential to spill out into the world around us.
subtile movement
A little more done on this 3d animated drone I’ve working on in Blender and Substance Painter. Hopefully it will make its way into one of the ideas I have for augmented reality.
before the endless ocean
How hot would it need to be to melt all of the ice? How long would it take for the ocean to cover everything?
Somewhere in a distant future.
Everything is Repeated
Origins
The screen becomes a portal into a relentless perception. Ceaseless scans seen through decaying vision. Congested atmospheres shroud savage ruinous landscapes, where the only equal to their horror is their beauty. Hints of sound emanate from the shadows around me. The detached views in front of me give access to a hunt, a search, a gathering of data. At what distance can I see this unfolding, this unrelenting visual interrogation? Fragments of schizophrenic familiarities only add to the displacement of a context. Is this the future or a romantic envisioning of another past? Multiple views only intensify the confusion of scale and lack of historical placement. I respond with unease to the possibilities envisioned from these views. The haunting emptiness of the subtle sounds maintains the curiosity of these in human landscapes. As I wait in anticipation for answers to my questions, I find myself searching, hunting for that critical rupture in the pattern. I’m looking for something that has not been seen.
drone minis
propaganda
the clues are all around us
Cellular communication towers, patriot missile batteries, primitive spears and lances, radar dishes, the ostankino tower and nike missiles, antenna of all types. These are a few of the of the very specific things you will see in my landscapes. Everything I include has a purpose and everything relates to the content or the ideas that I hope these places inspire in the viewer. I have been told at times that these ideas are prescient, but how I see it, this is how it has always been and will always be. The feedback loop is the same, the technology is what advances. Is this not what we always desire?