![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/rsz_morgan_skinner_gorgon_stare_2016.jpg\" "\\"rsz_morgan_skinner_gorgon_stare_2016\\"")
<\/a>Morgan Skinner, Gorgon Stare, 2016<\/p>\nMona Kamal\u2019s carpet titled “Drones in Waziristan”\u00a0also confronts the sad reality of war, and our privilege that through technology we may remain far away. Kamal removes the fabric from carpet to document the dates of drone attacks while also emulating the loss of these events through the process of removal. We are invited to take off our shoes and walk on the work to feel our distance from the actual events.<\/p>\n
IOCOSE imagines the lives of drones dispatched from military and surveillance work during times of peace. In one scenario, the drones are athletes of the 100 m race \u2013 an activity being developed in reality for recreational drone owners. In another scenario, drones are portrayed in moments of vain boredom, turning their surveillance technology onto themselves to take domestic selfies. Exploring drones as a means of surveillance, Lawrence Bird\u2019s video of Google satellite images simulate a tour of the US-Canada border, a man-made mark on the natural landscape.<\/p>\n Rather than political patrol, David Bowen\u2019s acrylic sculptures demonstrate how surveillance technology can be used to document landscape at the mercy of tumultuous weather. His five sculptures, carved from a CNC router and set atop a plinth are models of the same co-ordinates over lake Superior during different weather conditions. Bowen\u2019s work, next to Joe Ford\u2019s sculptures, creates an incredible dynamic between man-made privacy and the vulnerability of nature. Ford\u2019s geometric plywood and grip tape sculptures, titled “Dead Pixels,”<\/em> arranged on the floor present an aerial experience of a suburban neighborhood.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The theme of pixelization used to communicate distance and also to communicate a means for privacy and censorship brings to mind essays and video works by the artist and writer Hito Steyerl. Pixelization is a means to escape the mutual mass surveillance and Google gaze, but to run away from video is not the most productive answer. The work “DIY (Drone it Yourself) v1.0” by Jasper van Loenen, presents an alternative proactive position. The democratizing effort of van Loenen includes 3D printable STL files, readily available electronic parts, and open source controller to make drone technology accessible to everyone.<\/p>\n<\/a>Mona Kamal, Drones in Waziristan (detail), 2015, Synthetic Carpet<\/p>\n<\/a>IOCOSE, Drone Selfies, 2014<\/p>\n<\/a>Lawrence Bird, Parallel 3, 2016<\/p>\n<\/a>Installation shot with Joe Ford,\u00a0Dead Pixels\u00a0(on the floor) and David Bowen’s sculptures<\/p>\n