Download Your Surveillance Drone Template

 

Surveillance Drone Action Figures are fully customizable PaperCraft and other DIY models of surveillance vehicles currently in service amongst civilian populations across the continental United States. The aim is to promote awareness of, and dialogue about, emerging surveillance techniques.

 

Click below to download your template and assembly instructions.  We strongly encourage participants to customize their drones with personal reactions, designing opinions and stories on issues revolving around the use of mechanized mobile surveillance into the models. Alter your model in any way you'd like to.  Feel free to download all six!

 

Details on how to have your model displayed at the upcoming exhibition, 'Surveillance', at the University City Science Center's Esther Klein Gallery in Philadelphia, can be found in the downloadable templates below.

 

For current information on the selection of drones, begin by exploring here.

 

Please note: Uploading of altered templates has ended. Thank you to everyone who took the time to alter one of the PDF templates above, and create a submission!

August 18 - September 30

The Esther Klein Gallery

 

An Exhibition of Work on the Observation, Recording, and Storage of Human Activity.

 

Prevailing political sensibilities would have you believe the willingness of a populace to be surveilled is simply gauged along a linear pendulum that swings between privacy and security.  Yet, critical examination shows issues surrounding the observation and mass recording of human activity are not as simple, or as conceptually polarized as we are led to believe.

 

On display are multiple works by Keith Hartwig and Daniel Newman. Some explore the origin of our nonchalance towards surveillance brought about through observational technologies' appropriation of the language and semiotics of popular entertainment. Others look at the timeline of reasons we, as a society, gave our consent to be observed. Even the nature of urban form is examined; cites are digitally reassembled as constructs of information collected through the electronic watch of local authorities.

 

The show’s public component is ‘Surveillance Drone Action Figures’. Patrons download the materials needed to construct replicas of surveillance vehicles presently in use over U.S. civilian populations, as a way to promote dialogue about emerging observation techniques. Models range in complexity from simple cut + fold papercraft to more complex lasercut / 3d printable versions. Participants are encouraged to customize their drones with personal reactions, designing opinions and stories on issues revolving around the use of mechanized mobile surveillance into their models.

 

About the artists.

 

 

UPCOMING + INFORMATIONAL

 

 

AUGUST 18 - 2016 / 7:00 PM - OPENING RECEPTION

  • Opening reception at the Esther Klein Gallery.  All Downloadable templates on-line.
  • Uploads of altered templates begin.

 

AUGUST 27 - 2016 / 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM - DRONE ACTION FIGURE WORKSHOP

  • At the Esther Klein Gallery.
  • Build a custom paper-craft drone at the exhibition, expressing a personal view on the issue of surveillance, and have the results placed on display. Basic materials, templates, and crafting tools provided.

 

SEPTEMBER 10 - 2016 / 11:00 AM -"OBJECTS OF SURVEILLANCE" PHOTO SAFARI

  • Meeting place and details TBA
  • A collective effort to photograph as many pieces of surveillance tech in center city Philadelphia. (Within the boundaries of William Penn and Thomas Holme's original 1682 plan.)  Participants upload their geo-tagged or annotated photos, to be aggregated by artists Hartwig and Newman, culminating in a downloadable 'field guide' to help in identifying prominent observational technologies placed throughout ‪the city...

 

N.Y.P.D. BELL 429 Helicopter + Churchill Nav

 

 

Hawkeye II by Persistent Surveillance Systems, Inc.

 

 

MQ-9 Reaper by Global Atomics

 

 

DJI Phantom by DJI Technologies

 

 

PC-12 NG Specter by Pilatus

 

 

Philadelphia P.D. SUV + ESLAG MPH-9000 ALPR

 

 

STINGRAYS + DIRTBOXES

 

 

Keith Hartwig is a Masters candiate at the Harvard GSD, and an adjunct professor of Architecture and Visual Studies at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. He creates works of art and architecture that promote user participation and civic dialogue. His work explores how design operates as a mediation and extension of human experience into the built environment.

 

Daniel Newman is an assoc. architect, and an adjunct professor of Architectural Drawing and Visual Studies, He is a designer of buildings, objects, and media with a practice based in Philadelphia and New York City. The first decade of his career was spent on the intangible side of the digital divide, designing interface, entertainment software, and interactivity for museums and the music industry. Since 2000, Daniel has been exploring the intersection of media and the built environment. He received his Masters of Architecture from Parsons, The New School for Design.

 

 

 

With special thanks to; Angela McQuillan and The University City Science Center, Point B Fabrication, Graham Watson, Dustin Campbell, Carrie Leibrand, Selma Gekoski, and Saumon Oboudiyat.