Re: [-empyre-] Hello From Angel

["ricardo miranda zuniga" <ricardo@ambriente.com>]

Hello empyre folk,
Angel thank you for the description of LowDrone.  I've enjoyed the
project since you first told me about it for its subversion of a
surveillance technology.  The mash between the low rider and UAV to
co-opt a War Machine tool, I believe, is a great example of how we can
establish a sense of empowerment by spinning a given technology outside
of the realm in which it was created (that of authoritarian powers) and
translating the tool into the creative domain.

As it stands the project exists in the realm of metaphor and
representation.  I think it would be great to extend it beyond that
space either through tele-performance which is suggested by the
interaction presented on the website, or to enact a series of
performances in which a spontaneous audience might be allowed to control
the LowDrone.  This might be something similar to the Institute for
Applied Autonomy's graffiti writer in which pedestrians could write
their own messages using the remotely controlled graffiti vehicle and
therefore enacting a form of civil disobedience.
ricardo

> Hello Everyone,
> I would like to enter the discussion by first
> introducing myself and writing a few words on the
> LowDrone, the online project by Alex Rivera and I,
> produced for INSITE2005/Tijuana Calling. 
> http://www.lowdrone.com/
> 
> (But first let me say that I had a hard time
> processing the start of this month?s Empyre discussion
> alongside Katrina and its aftermath. My deepest
> respect goes out to all that have suffered.)
> 
> Being a product of the US./Mexico border, I find the
> subject of this months? discussion to be stimulating
> and thought provoking. To me, the border has always
> represented a site of translation, one that requires
> constant negotiation between multiple realities it
> produces.  
> The border and its effects are not fixed to the
> Southwestern United States region. For example, towns
> in Long Island, New York, one can come across day
> laborers waiting on street corners for work just as
> they do in cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, and El
> Paso. That border has, and is, already moving north. 
> 
> The LowDrone, is the world?s first airborne lowrider
> capable of transmitting video feeds from a wireless
> camera strapped to its? body. A lowrider is a car that
> has had its suspension modified with hydraulics so
> that it rides really low to the ground and also hops
> and bounces with the flip of a switch. Its? historic
> legacy is tied to the Mexican-American youth since the
> 1940?s.
> http://www.geocities.com/rollingtogstyle/index.html 
> 
> For Alex and I, the LowDrone is a direct response to
> the increased use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
> or drones along the U.S./Mexico border. The Predator
> Drone, one of three ?cameras-with-wings? produced by
> the military, is currently used by the border patrol
> and the military. Radical and racist vigilante groups,
> such as the Minutemen and American Border Patrol, have
> their own version of the drone?the Border Hawk. The
> Border Hawk along with net has allowed American Border
> Patrol to ?enlist? virtual members and have them watch
> the border for ?invaders.?
> http://www.minutemanhq.com/project/
> http://www.americanborderpatrol.com/ 
>  
> In terms of technology, the border, and the net, the
> LowDrone functions to highlight what is already
> present, that of constant surveillance. The online
> interface renders the possibilities of patrolling
> one?s own airspace, and at the same time, watching the
> watchers. 
> 
> 
> 
> 		
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> 

ricardo miranda zuñiga
www.ambriente.com