2025 SPE Annual Conference: Adaptations
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print this pageUnmanned Landscapes
Justin R. Ward
Saturday, October 25 - 4:40PM to 5:25PM
Clark Theater
Unmanned Landscapes explores the ways in which current satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, technology can be utilized to experience the land in new ways. Blending influences from minimalism and abstract expressionism, my artwork explores how the abstraction of aerial imagery can alter a viewer's expectations and perception of a landscape. My process involves collecting numerous images of the land as a starting point. I capture satellite views from Google Earth and also fly my UAV over the land while the onboard camera records photographs or video. Various choices guide my image collection. Sometimes I fly the UAV in a grid pattern to photograph sweeping areas of the land and other times I dialogue with nature and allow the wind to push the UAV through the air. Therefore, nature and chance are allowed to dictate which part of the land I capture. These images are then composited together to form large abstract views of the land. This process literally deconstructs and then reconstructs the land in a new way. This project blends realism with abstraction, fantasy with reality, and nature with technology. I play in the space between what a place is and what it can become.
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Justin Ward
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