During WW2, the v2 rocket broke both the sound barrier and earth's gravity constraints in order to strike enemies abroad. The sound it produced while crossing the sky became part of its terrorizing power. nowadays, the absence of sound is even more alarming: A drone strike won't be noticed and who triggers it will be displaced by the computer screen thousands of kilometers away. [On October 3, 1942 the A-4 was first launched from Peenemunde. Breaking the sound barrier, it reached an altitude of sixty miles. It was the world's first launch of a ballistic missile and the first rocket ever to go into the fringes of space].
Based on remote controlled flying devices we will explore different ways of generating sound we propose a performance around the frightening omnipresent power of 'drones'.
Our flying devices will generate sound by themselves and won't require any amplification thus becoming one of the main interests to accomplish. This sound will be captured and sent in real time to a sound system on the ground.
The planes will also broadcast video from embedded camera so the public can see throw the "drone" eyes. peoples will see them in real time looking at the drone.
2 custom made radio flying device : electric powered plane or thermal wind glider with wingspan of about 1 or 2 meter will be controlled from the ground via radio signals.
different approach of making sound will be experiment.
- By the use of different materials attached to the wings
- using flutes. Tubes of variable size attached to the wing and fuselage of the planes letting the wind pass through holes that, depending on wind speed, will produce sound. Control gates can be added so one can close at will, via remote control, the aperture/pitch of the sound.
- A third approach relates directly to the electric motor revolutions. Their high-speed vibration being itself a way to pace rhythm, attack, pace. Being in this case a sound related to the propeller qualities.
In this line of sound search it might be necessary to control the speed of the motors based on a programmed routine that can be repeated by the different planes in the air. For such automation we might be using an on-board micro controller (ardupilot compatible).
In order to realize this project we need a 1 week residency to work on the sound of the planes.
BDDWS ("Bringing Down Drones With Stones")
This performance is a poetic statement enacted at the open fields against 'drone' and surveillance technologies as they are being enforced today by so many governments of terror.
We resist drone/UAV technologies of war and all the surveillance and control enforced through them by governments of fear and terror. To keep the spirit of being able to fight against the army, we better train ourselves on the techniques of "Bringing Down Drones With Stones".
During this performance, the public is asked to get down a radio controlled plane with whatever is at hand. This fun and participative performance is a way to acknowledging those who have died [-so far-] under the coward "drone wars". Estimates of those killed in strikes between 2004 and early 2013 range from around 2000 to around 3000 deaths in Pakistan.
This performance was presented at Desert Numérique in France, on July 2013 and is ready to be present again. We will capture images taken from the perspective of a flying device and transmit them live to a local screen.
Drones tracking people, people tracking drones.