https://stevencottingham.com Steven Cottingham Tue, 09 Sep 2025 16:32:17 +0000 https://stevencottingham.com en https://stevencottingham.com/Home-1 Fri, 12 May 2023 19:01:29 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Home-1 <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d37fe585ce74e0394ce6b1249f1a6e7f08a6e12263d219774dba5d187f18abb/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_thumb_01.jpg" data-mid="237992161" border="0" alt="2025. Simulation Sickness" data-caption="2025. &lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d37fe585ce74e0394ce6b1249f1a6e7f08a6e12263d219774dba5d187f18abb/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_thumb_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1466" width_o="2200" height_o="1466" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e7a629eb110bbea24debe551b8a878bfe54839fd96bcc13141c9ee581fd71257/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_04.jpg" data-mid="226909480" border="0" alt="2025. Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley" data-caption="2025. &lt;em&gt;Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e7a629eb110bbea24debe551b8a878bfe54839fd96bcc13141c9ee581fd71257/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_04.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/272df1005460890427009c22b52013729402967d69a5a654818247e74d38bb2c/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="218813436" border="0" alt="2024. Sorcerers on Strike" data-caption="2024. &lt;em&gt;Sorcerers on Strike&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/272df1005460890427009c22b52013729402967d69a5a654818247e74d38bb2c/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b41af5fcb0d8a8a4639cf38c88cf08e0b26654095b6d92d2691618ba4b866d16/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" data-mid="214011458" border="0" alt="2024. Rules of Estrangement" data-caption="2024. &lt;em&gt;Rules of Estrangement&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b41af5fcb0d8a8a4639cf38c88cf08e0b26654095b6d92d2691618ba4b866d16/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1721" width_o="2500" height_o="1721" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31d7dd0017ec18c0503969464ba083e8afbad44828e242ee0a6356594389f023/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_01.jpg" data-mid="197556855" border="0" alt="2023. When the drone cuts" data-caption="2023. &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/31d7dd0017ec18c0503969464ba083e8afbad44828e242ee0a6356594389f023/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1645" width_o="2200" height_o="1645" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f4637e9c422729b0950c0d00c36d46b6fa7d51dee149b593bb780bc180d9155/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_17.jpg" data-mid="207655966" border="0" alt="2023. Human Resources" data-caption="2023. &lt;em&gt;Human Resources&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f4637e9c422729b0950c0d00c36d46b6fa7d51dee149b593bb780bc180d9155/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_17.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f7be13a8a16d86b682d1fa941b2e9388ad2e841dbcd2cf997ba0650c7e789f21/01_Cottingham_Beasts-without-number_2022.jpg" data-mid="179098937" border="0" alt="2022. Beasts without number" data-caption="2022. &lt;em&gt;Beasts without number&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f7be13a8a16d86b682d1fa941b2e9388ad2e841dbcd2cf997ba0650c7e789f21/01_Cottingham_Beasts-without-number_2022.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="1334" width_o="2000" height_o="1334" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fdccee81f957c19ae1263ff9dd552a091601ea3f276e69162bd9ef0a8313b470/Cottingham_Suspended-Animation_Natalia-Hug-Galerie_2022_install_04.jpg" data-mid="179101400" border="0" alt="2022. Suspended Animation" data-caption="2022. &lt;em&gt;Suspended Animation&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fdccee81f957c19ae1263ff9dd552a091601ea3f276e69162bd9ef0a8313b470/Cottingham_Suspended-Animation_Natalia-Hug-Galerie_2022_install_04.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/000e599ff1f8e5719df8f999a4aadf6c607e72d863864aeb34bd6c2be6d0456b/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_29.jpg" data-mid="179969812" border="0" alt="2022. Chain&ndash;link" data-caption="2022. &lt;em&gt;Chain–link&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/000e599ff1f8e5719df8f999a4aadf6c607e72d863864aeb34bd6c2be6d0456b/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_29.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe9998963cc9f1d70abb7b7e3f51d7453009f8ece96cb20397ebe668b647c0e3/Cottingham_After-Images_2021_install_04.jpg" data-mid="179109511" border="0" alt="2021. After Images" data-caption="2021. &lt;em&gt;After Images&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fe9998963cc9f1d70abb7b7e3f51d7453009f8ece96cb20397ebe668b647c0e3/Cottingham_After-Images_2021_install_04.jpg" /> <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/807a3d950c51f238966766330453c0557e85eaf06e0484a52c97ec39851a8689/A-Camera-Captures-Images-A-Court-Sets-Them-Free_2021_poster_03.jpg" data-mid="197702685" border="0" alt="2021. A Camera Captures Images, A Court Sets Them Free" data-caption="2021. &lt;em&gt;A Camera Captures Images, A Court Sets Them Free&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/807a3d950c51f238966766330453c0557e85eaf06e0484a52c97ec39851a8689/A-Camera-Captures-Images-A-Court-Sets-Them-Free_2021_poster_03.jpg" /> <img width="1800" height="1200" width_o="1800" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9e46cd7eb6500cc8b8a02690206db51234b750e5fe5566901b5712e593add8c/Cottingham_renders_2020_01.jpg" data-mid="195573938" border="0" alt="2021. Is rendering like painting?" data-caption="2021. &lt;em&gt;Is rendering like painting?&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e9e46cd7eb6500cc8b8a02690206db51234b750e5fe5566901b5712e593add8c/Cottingham_renders_2020_01.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1067" width_o="1600" height_o="1067" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0cddb5c2e71891bf1a8d023b3ac4e7ab43036198d19caf182a14a064e428b437/16_Cottingham_Signal-chains_Alternator-Centre_2020_install.jpg" data-mid="179202371" border="0" alt="2020. Signal chains" data-caption="2020. &lt;em&gt;Signal chains&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0cddb5c2e71891bf1a8d023b3ac4e7ab43036198d19caf182a14a064e428b437/16_Cottingham_Signal-chains_Alternator-Centre_2020_install.jpg" /> <img width="1600" height="1061" width_o="1600" height_o="1061" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/50afbadee02358c1df2a447e08257fb88f435b1723fe791a2a2030350e56c77e/20_Cottingham_Worldwide-Cobweb_2020_install.jpg" data-mid="179317975" border="0" alt="2020. Worldwide Cobweb" data-caption="2020. &lt;em&gt;Worldwide Cobweb&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/50afbadee02358c1df2a447e08257fb88f435b1723fe791a2a2030350e56c77e/20_Cottingham_Worldwide-Cobweb_2020_install.jpg" /> <img width="2880" height="1800" width_o="2880" height_o="1800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/70cda62a0958c668169009d78a35a45d32b8d3bc0bd09dfc3e991847eeb46406/Screen-Shot-2020-02-17-at-2.48.54-PM.png" data-mid="179318635" border="0" alt="2020. Photorealism and forgery" data-caption="2020. &lt;em&gt;Photorealism and forgery&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/70cda62a0958c668169009d78a35a45d32b8d3bc0bd09dfc3e991847eeb46406/Screen-Shot-2020-02-17-at-2.48.54-PM.png" /> <img width="1467" height="2200" width_o="1467" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ae44d1e691cd0279603d105acf0b5d0fd53e93b5b48541aeb0da6d48a2b177a8/01_Cottingham_installation-view_2019.jpg" data-mid="179320423" border="0" alt="2019. Entropic indices" data-caption="2019. &lt;em&gt;Entropic indices&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ae44d1e691cd0279603d105acf0b5d0fd53e93b5b48541aeb0da6d48a2b177a8/01_Cottingham_installation-view_2019.jpg" /> <img width="1800" height="1200" width_o="1800" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/296557fcd3dd2bef7b8d0d30013bdfae96b1ed129ddd2cb24939d4afa5d452f4/06_Cottingham_Heat-death_2018-1800.jpg" data-mid="179325620" border="0" alt="2018. Heat, death" data-caption="2018. &lt;em&gt;Heat, death&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/296557fcd3dd2bef7b8d0d30013bdfae96b1ed129ddd2cb24939d4afa5d452f4/06_Cottingham_Heat-death_2018-1800.jpg" /> <img width="1800" height="1212" width_o="1800" height_o="1212" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dcf961d788858c84bb4afe78bb3a95845eb94bf8f76edaa57823ff24229719c5/01_Cottingham-1800.jpg" data-mid="179738140" border="0" alt="2018. Inertia for the common fold" data-caption="2018. &lt;em&gt;Inertia for the common fold&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/dcf961d788858c84bb4afe78bb3a95845eb94bf8f76edaa57823ff24229719c5/01_Cottingham-1800.jpg" /> <img width="1800" height="1200" width_o="1800" height_o="1200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9aed5a34726c32006220f11a87aa2c8732fae3f903d16460de4482f92a261ea9/Cottingham_Candle_01.jpg" data-mid="179739523" border="0" alt="2017. Thanatos&ndash;eros&ndash;thanatos prime" data-caption="2017. &lt;em&gt;Thanatos–eros–thanatos prime&lt;/em&gt;" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9aed5a34726c32006220f11a87aa2c8732fae3f903d16460de4482f92a261ea9/Cottingham_Candle_01.jpg" /> https://stevencottingham.com/Info Wed, 01 Nov 2023 19:36:46 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Info My artwork engages with “virtual realism” and the politics of visualization. By drawing from case studies involving bodycam evidence, surveillance advertising, military simulation software, and the use of AI in prisons, I explore how imaging technologies both affect and reflect social values. For instance, the short film As far as the drone can see examines the phenomenon of war footage mistakenly sourced from video games, extending gendered biases and orientalist portrayals through national news channels. And&nbsp;A Camera Captures Images, A Court Sets Them Free considers the impact of viral footage depicting abuses of power on the widespread adoption of body cameras by police forces. The ubiquity of synthetic imagery requires us to think of images beyond the question of real or fake, and more along the lines of power and belief. In my practice, I underscore the constructedness of all images—not to contest their truthfulness, but to reveal the technological methods and social conditions through which meaning emerges. Recent exhibitions and screenings include Catriona Jeffries,&nbsp;Dazibao,&nbsp;Milan Machinima Festival, Center for Performance Research, Wil Aballe, The 8th Floor, ENTRE, VRAL, Natalia Hug Galerie, Artists Space, and The Polygon Gallery. From 2018 to 2021 I co-edited the periodical QOQQOON. From 2021 to 2022 I participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program. From 2024 to 2025 I was artist-in-residence with the Canadian Forces Artist Program. Currently based in Vancouver, Canada. With thanks to Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council for their funding and support.Contact via email, insta, youtube. https://stevencottingham.com/Simulation-Sickness Tue, 09 Sep 2025 16:32:17 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Simulation-Sickness Simulation Sickness: a kinetic installation produced after a residency with the Canadian Army Simulation Centre as part of the Canadian Forces Artist Program, 2024–2025. Shells, kites, target gongs—these are all casualties of simulated conflict. In Simulation Sickness, the stand-ins of small arms training appear as players in a security theatre. A shooting gong reappropriates its musical double meaning, reverberating with tactile transducers borrowed from vehicle simulators. Safety-orange flutes drone alongside, their colouring recalling the practice rifles that point bright muzzles at on-screen silhouettes. And a throbbing turtle shell alludes to the endangered animals that make their homes on the artillery ranges of several Eastern Canadian military bases. These landscapes, off-limits to people yet scarred by indirect fire, have paradoxically become conservation zones where wood turtles and other at-risk species survive amid the debris of spent shells, eking out a life in the blurred overlap of the real and the simulated. <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/36f8b60323f8777da1e30ca224a9462a7277180201f11c9d4653031d0a915fe6/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_01.jpg" data-mid="237992030" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/36f8b60323f8777da1e30ca224a9462a7277180201f11c9d4653031d0a915fe6/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fd800e39d968ce0fa0a611edc0d06086acdc31bdf19b476dad91ad01a7fe3787/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_02.jpg" data-mid="237992031" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fd800e39d968ce0fa0a611edc0d06086acdc31bdf19b476dad91ad01a7fe3787/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_02.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6c26b9fc82a620dc5721bc638116a65894bc99326b392caeda6885139fe3ea10/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_03.jpg" data-mid="237992032" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6c26b9fc82a620dc5721bc638116a65894bc99326b392caeda6885139fe3ea10/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_03.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1776" width_o="2200" height_o="1776" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/09b3a311afe136325644d286c430b62f4533a73a0a57c465650d7d7360aece2e/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_04.jpg" data-mid="237992033" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/09b3a311afe136325644d286c430b62f4533a73a0a57c465650d7d7360aece2e/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_04.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b0f63b7bbcc7b070b2ec2f289b577fa5f7145c328227847dce9a0c72e30caf0/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_05.jpg" data-mid="237992034" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b0f63b7bbcc7b070b2ec2f289b577fa5f7145c328227847dce9a0c72e30caf0/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_05.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/85ba208583da20cecb91c7b98461d11df5b05d04d2ae4049cb20fdc82eff4d4a/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_06.jpg" data-mid="237992035" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/85ba208583da20cecb91c7b98461d11df5b05d04d2ae4049cb20fdc82eff4d4a/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_06.jpg" /> At the centre, a ticking slide projector keeps time as a virtual sun rises and falls within a military simulation software environment. Its image is cast upon a fighting kite, a precursor to the aerial surveillance of modern drones, as well as the practice target of ground-to-air combat exercises. Around it stand silhouetted figures, echoing the cut-outs of shooting ranges. But here their roles are reversed: no longer passive targets, now they perform as a musical trio. The projected slides offer discontiguous slices, strobing glimpses of a world inhabited by these ghostly surrogates. Although training environments are designed to dehumanize or even efface the opponent, this audiovisual installation stages a counter-simulation, where the abstractions of military design are unsettled by resonance, rhythm, and breath. In the suspended animation of the milsim, as in the drone’s harmonics, there is no movement but tension and release. <img width="2200" height="1486" width_o="2200" height_o="1486" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fa2392221d6db5157bd7b9da712e94a7b57a589d952bbec0afbaad8048eedd78/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_07.jpg" data-mid="237992036" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fa2392221d6db5157bd7b9da712e94a7b57a589d952bbec0afbaad8048eedd78/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_07.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1774" width_o="2200" height_o="1774" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/297c03a5c0e54e5fed9294ed0efe95bb32c2cff4c6f44464ca674944dcbd7a04/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_08.jpg" data-mid="237992037" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/297c03a5c0e54e5fed9294ed0efe95bb32c2cff4c6f44464ca674944dcbd7a04/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_08.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1559" width_o="2200" height_o="1559" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ace85a8c98f8f345be87c1d1c222eec487eb43e23cb1508453e40d2e27ed55bb/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_09.jpg" data-mid="237992038" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ace85a8c98f8f345be87c1d1c222eec487eb43e23cb1508453e40d2e27ed55bb/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_09.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/11393f3869a39811fd630ff22bec012fa0ea320b4a8f5c43eaa829de1f7289d2/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_10.jpg" data-mid="237992039" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/11393f3869a39811fd630ff22bec012fa0ea320b4a8f5c43eaa829de1f7289d2/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_10.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1587" width_o="2200" height_o="1587" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1bb2cf764e7bd4470b53fe846ce4f6147c5539cf13e3991f320af31d675868dc/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_11.jpg" data-mid="237992040" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1bb2cf764e7bd4470b53fe846ce4f6147c5539cf13e3991f320af31d675868dc/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_11.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d0aa662cfbf0e24c755949d5fa635cba55d78a20f81d13ec07260c0e36a8b3e0/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_12.jpg" data-mid="237992041" border="0" alt="Simulation Sickness, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Simulation Sickness&lt;/em&gt;, 2025, slide projector, target gong with stand, ethically-sourced painted turtle shell, digital wind instruments, tactile transducers, rokkaku kite, aircraft cable, tape, wiring, amplifiers, midi interface, patch cords, hardware, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d0aa662cfbf0e24c755949d5fa635cba55d78a20f81d13ec07260c0e36a8b3e0/Cottingham_Simulation-Sickness_2025_12.jpg" /> https://stevencottingham.com/Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:24:43 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley, Dazibao, Montreal, Canada, February 6–March 29, 2025. <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a409876909d049185cbff245f73a606063e6c8b5613901eb0a9a6403d7986189/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_01.jpg" data-mid="226908050" border="0" alt="Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire, 2024, single-channel video with sound, 16 minutes, 25 seconds" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire&lt;/i&gt;, 2024, single-channel video with sound, 16 minutes, 25 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a409876909d049185cbff245f73a606063e6c8b5613901eb0a9a6403d7986189/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fe0f1ab700f50d067c3589e1af8e46de1df0dc8d6549e7e6beb7b01b48172dd5/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_02.jpg" data-mid="226908051" border="0" alt="Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire, 2024, single-channel video with sound, 16 minutes, 25 seconds" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire&lt;/i&gt;, 2024, single-channel video with sound, 16 minutes, 25 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fe0f1ab700f50d067c3589e1af8e46de1df0dc8d6549e7e6beb7b01b48172dd5/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_02.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/416b83dc124192d5267fa602e55108b80e89c448c713b9d879c0c8f017faea25/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_03.jpg" data-mid="226908052" border="0" alt="Cadpat cucoloris, 2025, digital projections, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Cadpat cucoloris&lt;/i&gt;, 2025, digital projections, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/416b83dc124192d5267fa602e55108b80e89c448c713b9d879c0c8f017faea25/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_03.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1466" width_o="2200" height_o="1466" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4780db56bb68c496e9e3f9625c100208cd7550f08f446794200937265ea909fb/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_04.jpg" data-mid="226908053" border="0" alt="Installation view, Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley, Dazibao, Montreal, 2025" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;i&gt;Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley&lt;/i&gt;, Dazibao, Montreal, 2025" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4780db56bb68c496e9e3f9625c100208cd7550f08f446794200937265ea909fb/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_04.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/afa939556a1871d67dcb11c045920dded927ef77f85513d20e5569edf7d5818d/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_05.jpg" data-mid="226908054" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/i&gt;, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/afa939556a1871d67dcb11c045920dded927ef77f85513d20e5569edf7d5818d/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_05.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1466" width_o="2200" height_o="1466" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f3f416adc8502b3b2f11233ff3ebb3ffe5f009160ab3bc377780e296d89abaf/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_06.jpg" data-mid="226908055" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/i&gt;, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f3f416adc8502b3b2f11233ff3ebb3ffe5f009160ab3bc377780e296d89abaf/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_06.jpg" /> Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley brings together a series of video works that reflect on wargames and simulations, questioning their use. Do they act as representations of war or, rather, as models for war? Further, how do ideologies of war and emergency depend on the conflation between real and representational to sustain legitimacy? The exhibition’s two main video works, As far as the drone can see and Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire, while genre-bending in form, might be contextualized as virtual photojournalism. Here, the artist forays into the virtual world of Arma 3, a military simulation widely used by law-enforcement training programs, private military companies, and wargamers alike. Beyond documenting the virtual world, however, Cottingham plays the game to subvert it—or invade it. He interrupts the landscape with its own historicity. Billboards are replaced with archival photos documenting real war refugees who might have traversed the land. Complicating its surface, within the so-called photorealistic world of the game, he embeds commemorative paintings that bring a reminder of the broader sociopolitical contexts in which wars occur—the people, women especially, who have dealt with war from distant proximities. Perhaps most transgressively, he introduces a female player and genderfluid cell of fighters into the entirely male-inhabited world, thereby narrowing in on how doctrines of war intercede upon identity and gender, and how their rehearsal within virtual frameworks omits certain real conditions of war and invisibilizes its casualties.&nbsp; <img width="2200" height="1466" width_o="2200" height_o="1466" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/61e10b0a143c2c955b46d26b11135f7f9f79f35bb11e4e13a8c8660a01c7840d/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_07.jpg" data-mid="226908056" border="0" alt="Cadpat cucoloris, 2025, digital projections, dimensions variable" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Cadpat cucoloris&lt;/i&gt;, 2025, digital projections, dimensions variable" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/61e10b0a143c2c955b46d26b11135f7f9f79f35bb11e4e13a8c8660a01c7840d/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_07.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/601411701ec220be41e0f9e655c83e2806ab82e4339a9455f8a327bb1efb1adb/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_09.jpg" data-mid="226908058" border="0" alt="Virtual vanishing points, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Virtual vanishing points&lt;/i&gt;, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/601411701ec220be41e0f9e655c83e2806ab82e4339a9455f8a327bb1efb1adb/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_09.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5409ef4734a33644229d77c12da71682d546d0798f9cfcc61073e6d87afd957e/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_10.jpg" data-mid="226908059" border="0" alt="Virtual vanishing points, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Virtual vanishing points&lt;/i&gt;, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5409ef4734a33644229d77c12da71682d546d0798f9cfcc61073e6d87afd957e/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_10.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1422" width_o="2200" height_o="1422" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cdb6e7324ab855298c223e9a2ac41cf183ab898a07f8e15e12276ff589f3a6f8/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_12.jpg" data-mid="226908061" border="0" alt="Virtual vanishing points, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Virtual vanishing points&lt;/i&gt;, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cdb6e7324ab855298c223e9a2ac41cf183ab898a07f8e15e12276ff589f3a6f8/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_12.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9ae3b61ccf280b6db59514f43083d16b1ea29fa3758a1239fe0d1886b5870d78/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_13.jpg" data-mid="226908062" border="0" alt="Virtual vanishing points, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" data-caption="&lt;i&gt;Virtual vanishing points&lt;/i&gt;, 2025, 4-channel video with sound, vinyl-clad chainlink mesh, 3 minute loop" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9ae3b61ccf280b6db59514f43083d16b1ea29fa3758a1239fe0d1886b5870d78/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_13.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e4a2dc25f467b8dd3d2179a0eb7589da6cc3e428d20790f6437edff4e1b937b3/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_14.jpg" data-mid="226908063" border="0" alt="Installation view, Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley, Dazibao, Montreal, 2025" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;i&gt;Lines Drawn in Sand Become a Valley&lt;/i&gt;, Dazibao, Montreal, 2025" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e4a2dc25f467b8dd3d2179a0eb7589da6cc3e428d20790f6437edff4e1b937b3/Cottingham_Lines-Drawn-in-Sand-Become-a-Valley_Dazibao_2025_14.jpg" /> Works As far as the drone can see is filmed inside the virtual world of Arma 3. Arma 3 is a military simulation (called MilSim) widely used by law enforcement training programs, private military companies, and wargamers. Despite its highly realistic portrayal of military tactics and post-conflict reconstruction, there are zero women combatants, civilians, or characters in the simulator. The artist bridges the gender gap by introducing a female journalist and genderfluid guerrilla fighters into the simulation, following their covert insurrection as they navigate the complex intersections of gender and war. Through these deeply mediated representations of war, the film explores how gender roles on the homefront have been historically shaped by the construction of gender roles on the battlefront, and vice versa. Exploring the evolving relationship between war, simulation, and entertainment, Magic Circles Ringed in Barbed Wire discusses how virtual imagery penetrates the befuddled battlespace of war. From tactical training to simulations of domestic upheaval and international warfare, wargames create narratives that inform military and political decisions. While gaming has long been inspired by war, NATO militaries now use commercially available games and software to replicate battlefield conditions. Have the tools used for gaming, for training, and for fighting become one and the same? In Virtual vanishing points, various tabletop wargames are subjected to low-frequency sonic vibrations, transforming their tactical components into kaleidoscopic abstractions. The games include Next War: Taiwan, Situationist Guy Debord’s Le Jeu de la guerre, NATO’s 3D-printed Mission Task Verbs, and an augmented reality sandtable. Under the influence of sine waves, Chladni patterns emerge, scattering game pieces into intricate formations that resemble fractal figures rather than military maneuvers. The Canadian Disruptive Pattern (CADPAT), introduced in 1997, is the world’s first computer-generated digital camouflage, replacing hand-painted or printed designs typically created by artists. Its pixelated micropatterns mimic the natural ability of foliage to disrupt silhouettes through an interplay of light and shadow. However, its development alongside the rise of digital cameras suggests that the primary target of deception is not the human eye, but a virtual gaze. In Cadpat cucoloris, CADPAT is transformed into a cucoloris—a theatrical tool that simulates light filtering through a leafy canopy—immersing the gallery within a virtual forest.Photography by Matthieu Brouillard. https://stevencottingham.com/Sorcerers-on-Strike Fri, 06 Sep 2024 20:03:05 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Sorcerers-on-Strike <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/272df1005460890427009c22b52013729402967d69a5a654818247e74d38bb2c/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="217639256" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/272df1005460890427009c22b52013729402967d69a5a654818247e74d38bb2c/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fbe89c41d8dfea5c933187beb6473b7a731b262c0e93b37c212810710dde5e02/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_02.jpg" data-mid="217639257" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fbe89c41d8dfea5c933187beb6473b7a731b262c0e93b37c212810710dde5e02/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1571" width_o="2200" height_o="1571" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b822acd06cc370699a341a17ca70682e73b70c2a5f011189a19c0e8e7c6407f2/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_05.jpg" data-mid="217639258" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b822acd06cc370699a341a17ca70682e73b70c2a5f011189a19c0e8e7c6407f2/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_05.jpg" /> <img width="1467" height="2200" width_o="1467" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e0a531b467141b0b737e87f0cf1641bc67c4019feff68597853c2e2d458a97af/Cottingham_Birdseed-cymatics_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="217639247" border="0" alt="Birdseed cymatics, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Birdseed cymatics&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e0a531b467141b0b737e87f0cf1641bc67c4019feff68597853c2e2d458a97af/Cottingham_Birdseed-cymatics_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/21cc2e8c84dc9746401bf6505b7660c78120f1e760db3ac788889f81a674d6f0/Cottingham_Birdseed-cymatics_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" data-mid="217639248" border="0" alt="Birdseed cymatics (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Birdseed cymatics&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/21cc2e8c84dc9746401bf6505b7660c78120f1e760db3ac788889f81a674d6f0/Cottingham_Birdseed-cymatics_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" /> <img width="1467" height="2200" width_o="1467" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ca2eb548ab69ab5556ebff208dd60b103b2a4b737654a7dca29a280b974fa9f2/Cottingham_Stampede-through-server-farms_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="217639262" border="0" alt="Stampede through server farms, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Stampede through server farms&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ca2eb548ab69ab5556ebff208dd60b103b2a4b737654a7dca29a280b974fa9f2/Cottingham_Stampede-through-server-farms_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/444e76bd9d6ea98a3dba62e0a8930f53f02de5465a2d0609e4ded5980c314002/Cottingham_Stampede-through-server-farms_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" data-mid="217639263" border="0" alt="Stampede through server farms (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Stampede through server farms&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 37 x 26 x 4 in. (94 x 66 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/444e76bd9d6ea98a3dba62e0a8930f53f02de5465a2d0609e4ded5980c314002/Cottingham_Stampede-through-server-farms_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" /> <img width="1571" height="2200" width_o="1571" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/405431a4f6dc40615ea76e6a77a7a988ef98c96c1c1daa874d14534f1970a62b/Cottingham_Fibre-optic-forensics_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="217639251" border="0" alt="Fibre optic forensics, 2024, laser levels, rotating bases, tripods, each 51 x 29 x 25 in. (130 x 74 x 63 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Fibre optic forensics&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, laser levels, rotating bases, tripods, each 51 x 29 x 25 in. (130 x 74 x 63 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/405431a4f6dc40615ea76e6a77a7a988ef98c96c1c1daa874d14534f1970a62b/Cottingham_Fibre-optic-forensics_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60eedf194925631bda5779f83568542c8d1cb981008ea992c1f11af0c8b4960e/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_08.jpg" data-mid="217639260" border="0" alt="Fibre optic forensics (detail), 2024, laser levels, rotating bases, tripods, each 51 x 29 x 25 in. (130 x 74 x 63 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Fibre optic forensics&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, laser levels, rotating bases, tripods, each 51 x 29 x 25 in. (130 x 74 x 63 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60eedf194925631bda5779f83568542c8d1cb981008ea992c1f11af0c8b4960e/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_08.jpg" /> <img width="1649" height="2200" width_o="1649" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3b01e11c12c6f616e3d4b5f48d1195b298d1604ed7ccf5e90326687efa039683/Cottingham_The-fossil-record-skips_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="217639264" border="0" alt="The fossil record skips, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The fossil record skips&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3b01e11c12c6f616e3d4b5f48d1195b298d1604ed7ccf5e90326687efa039683/Cottingham_The-fossil-record-skips_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1856" width_o="2200" height_o="1856" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5934fe261f7fd22176d335a4e8a07b277242d98f8309ff177ab4b90a46404bba/Cottingham_The-fossil-record-skips_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" data-mid="217639265" border="0" alt="The fossil record skips (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The fossil record skips&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5934fe261f7fd22176d335a4e8a07b277242d98f8309ff177ab4b90a46404bba/Cottingham_The-fossil-record-skips_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1571" width_o="2200" height_o="1571" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/34012c52daa1f19e922de5150f905765d72850db2616f18c113112ef9df01d9e/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_09.jpg" data-mid="217639261" border="0" alt="The fossil record skips (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The fossil record skips&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/34012c52daa1f19e922de5150f905765d72850db2616f18c113112ef9df01d9e/Cottingham_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_09.jpg" /> <img width="1563" height="2200" width_o="1563" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/01047843b4554eeded64f0a3f21f8ccd90adb648a2b825d6cc337b8cba80a000/Cottingham_Parrot-poet_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="217639254" border="0" alt="Parrot/poet, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Parrot/poet&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/01047843b4554eeded64f0a3f21f8ccd90adb648a2b825d6cc337b8cba80a000/Cottingham_Parrot-poet_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1572" height="2200" width_o="1572" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cb763180e34d9570fa5b485e848d55cbcc79f24d0c25982bb3ca8eff1dcd8c8d/Cottingham_Parrot-poet_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" data-mid="217639255" border="0" alt="Parrot/poet (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Parrot/poet&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 37 x 4 in. (129 x 93 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cb763180e34d9570fa5b485e848d55cbcc79f24d0c25982bb3ca8eff1dcd8c8d/Cottingham_Parrot-poet_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" /> <img width="1565" height="2200" width_o="1565" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f5e002bf3a63c8c26dbc341bf233e3ae7f55e61d4dbe4648e46a372711ec06ec/Cottingham_An-image-is-captured-or-raised-in-captivity_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="217639246" border="0" alt="An image is captured or raised in captivity, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 33 x 4 in. (129 x 83 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;An image is captured or raised in captivity&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 33 x 4 in. (129 x 83 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f5e002bf3a63c8c26dbc341bf233e3ae7f55e61d4dbe4648e46a372711ec06ec/Cottingham_An-image-is-captured-or-raised-in-captivity_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1467" height="2200" width_o="1467" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/caf0ee4c7721cc8d29f9b7f167e8b478f522e7c8b7f33bb1ed3b0201853c36e8/Cottingham_Ghostly-images-tracked-by-their-carbon-footprints_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="217639253" border="0" alt="Ghostly images tracked by their carbon footprints, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 33 x 4 in. (129 x 83 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Ghostly images tracked by their carbon footprints&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 50 x 33 x 4 in. (129 x 83 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/caf0ee4c7721cc8d29f9b7f167e8b478f522e7c8b7f33bb1ed3b0201853c36e8/Cottingham_Ghostly-images-tracked-by-their-carbon-footprints_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d693c11d294af73e55bb20fec72a487201d2e278ce11c99c4f555fd7eca645f2/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="217639249" border="0" alt="Data Doubles, 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Data Doubles&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d693c11d294af73e55bb20fec72a487201d2e278ce11c99c4f555fd7eca645f2/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="1786" height="2500" width_o="1786" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d27b80a0ed5bf927d3cf76a3a1f6fb5323b6c6dc564a6c603f17df52c9f35a61/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" data-mid="219399102" border="0" alt="Data Doubles, 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Data Doubles&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d27b80a0ed5bf927d3cf76a3a1f6fb5323b6c6dc564a6c603f17df52c9f35a61/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_01.jpg" /> <img width="1667" height="2500" width_o="1667" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5379d9265b8b785185d250357c16fe65c3621f847cbc4a71305aa7faa1642ce7/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_02.jpg" data-mid="219399103" border="0" alt="Data Doubles (detail), 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Data Doubles&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5379d9265b8b785185d250357c16fe65c3621f847cbc4a71305aa7faa1642ce7/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_detail_02.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1571" width_o="2200" height_o="1571" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0bfb4f89c7721b0247133de3da5df2dd696ff047de8542496a42d02e986d2520/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_02.jpg" data-mid="217639250" border="0" alt="Data Doubles, 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Data Doubles&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, 2 channel video with sound, curved lcd screens, fender guards, media players, each 75 x 34 x 9 in. (191 x 86 x 24 cm), 3 minutes, 33 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0bfb4f89c7721b0247133de3da5df2dd696ff047de8542496a42d02e986d2520/Cottingham_Data-double_2024_Sorcerers-on-Strike_2024_install_02.jpg" /> Sorcerers on strike! Sorcerers on strike! The web weavers and storyboarders, news reporters and necromancers, mines sucked dry by the age of information. Stampede through server farms. Try to capture it all in view. Grimace like a demon mask, eyes opened wide, wide, wide. No way to crop it, no labour to condense it, you gotta let it all in when the sorcerers’ on strike. The business of illusion at a standstill. The CPU fan stops spinning. Cloud service render farms, a thousand hours of energy per twenty-four frames of film? Ten seconds a barrel of oil. Now a clot in the pipeline. Real fires, real destruction sims, spiraling debris down from the cloud, particle effects in everyday rain. No sublimation without sorcery. The camera aperture dilates as if on drugs. I feel like a smart car off-grid. A kite with its undersea cables cut. Wish I could tell you what it means. They taught the parrot to speak but not to count. Parrot? Poet. Learned little puzzle games. Now addicted to MtG. Deep Blue plugged into ChatGPT. The future freaks you out? Turn up that old mp3. Listen to some specter sing: Copyright, copyright! Copyright, copyright! Art idea: you walk into a gallery, total white cube, but the door locks behind you. Clipped wings. Animal AI. Algorithm to decode your pet. Plug it in and take off the leash. An image is captured, or raised in captivity. Chains of signifiers, each one a hyperlink. Photos can’t capture the fog of war. History repeats itself. First as tragedy, then as 4k remaster. But the big picture can’t be upscaled enough. So we make peace with uncertainty. A faith characterized by doubt. Blissfully uninformed in the age of information. Sorcerers on strike, draft dodging the culture war. Cauldrons without coolant reaching the melting point of language. Adrift in empty metaphor until we break the chains of our signifiers. Sorcerers on strike. If you’ve done your job right, no one will be able to tell the difference. Feels like object permanence after waking from a dream. They work while you sleep, they work while you sleep. Past the pale of sensation: a cracked bell curve rings out. The record skips but we gotta collate it all. Fill the database. Let it run day and night. Cool it with glacier water taken from the shrinking space of the non-database. The record skips, the record skips. For the fossil record, the record skips. Ghostly images tracked by their carbon footprints. Now the screen is empty, like an abandoned zoo. Fingerprints on glass, but no touching. Made you look! Made you look! Late stageplay. It’s terminal. Time to reflect, to forgive. Prepare the way. Hold the withering flame, cherish the fading light. Recall what inspired you as a youth. Relinquish what jaded you as you grew. We inherited the earth and all the dust we dug up from the depths shall settle once more. The jaw goes slack when the sorcerers’ on strike. https://stevencottingham.com/Rules-of-Estrangement Tue, 02 Jul 2024 17:59:23 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Rules-of-Estrangement <img width="2200" height="1238" width_o="2200" height_o="1238" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f00677e1fc5bc98babf2870feee521890234af3d84d442e3acd23b8f5e337b5c/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="214010279" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f00677e1fc5bc98babf2870feee521890234af3d84d442e3acd23b8f5e337b5c/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b41af5fcb0d8a8a4639cf38c88cf08e0b26654095b6d92d2691618ba4b866d16/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" data-mid="214010281" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b41af5fcb0d8a8a4639cf38c88cf08e0b26654095b6d92d2691618ba4b866d16/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1789ca6c7377de83ba5d6e17c5c2f7384124327f0315c61c35a47b602fc94921/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" data-mid="214010270" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1789ca6c7377de83ba5d6e17c5c2f7384124327f0315c61c35a47b602fc94921/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44dbad65e75d370273befefc5c31706b486d8e8cc0e9423aa513315b7b47b7d7/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="214010268" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44dbad65e75d370273befefc5c31706b486d8e8cc0e9423aa513315b7b47b7d7/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1630" width_o="2200" height_o="1630" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0b0d9f0eb2529900f51f9266d6f21afd5a564f1d730535b3518cf01eb60cc80d/Cottingham_Divided-so-it-could-be-recognized_2022-2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_01.jpg" data-mid="214010273" border="0" alt="Untitled (ambient ArmA), 2024, single-channel video with sound, monitor, low altitude parachute, ropes, hardware, 10 minute loop" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Untitled (ambient ArmA)&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, single-channel video with sound, monitor, low altitude parachute, ropes, hardware, 10 minute loop" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0b0d9f0eb2529900f51f9266d6f21afd5a564f1d730535b3518cf01eb60cc80d/Cottingham_Divided-so-it-could-be-recognized_2022-2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1760" width_o="2200" height_o="1760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ae1caaaf4ec95f9e46a58677eb16da014af34fce39405eb7377467e32dbadcb/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_03.jpg" data-mid="214010282" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ae1caaaf4ec95f9e46a58677eb16da014af34fce39405eb7377467e32dbadcb/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_03.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1600" width_o="2200" height_o="1600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c00365d4bb71b0d075bb3da7d3323802eb8bd10c631c41e8254dd4e5e1c6d672/Cottingham_Divided-so-it-could-be-recognized_2022-2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" data-mid="214010275" border="0" alt="Divided so it could be recognized, 2022&ndash;2024, vinyl-clad chainlink fence components and mesh, hardware, padlocks, bike lock, 27 x 57 x 27 in. (69 x 145 x 69 cm) and 17 x 51 x 24 in. (43 x 130 x 61 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Divided so it could be recognized&lt;/em&gt;, 2022–2024, vinyl-clad chainlink fence components and mesh, hardware, padlocks, bike lock, 27 x 57 x 27 in. (69 x 145 x 69 cm) and 17 x 51 x 24 in. (43 x 130 x 61 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c00365d4bb71b0d075bb3da7d3323802eb8bd10c631c41e8254dd4e5e1c6d672/Cottingham_Divided-so-it-could-be-recognized_2022-2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da757a6dffb8368a215ce8dd0e967ad53612f1ff9957c9a4a229e9c9180ef0c1/Cottingham_A-metric-that-escapes-perspective_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="214010267" border="0" alt="A metric that escapes perspective, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;A metric that escapes perspective&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/da757a6dffb8368a215ce8dd0e967ad53612f1ff9957c9a4a229e9c9180ef0c1/Cottingham_A-metric-that-escapes-perspective_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb08f381385e7864ad408661dcad53375be2e5624d9f49854cf418444323a217/Cottingham_As-within-so-beyond_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="214010272" border="0" alt="As within so beyond, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As within so beyond&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb08f381385e7864ad408661dcad53375be2e5624d9f49854cf418444323a217/Cottingham_As-within-so-beyond_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/192a9bd6f58fcb80a397baf6b8baa0fb27e06956069a15696892fde56d33b10d/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_05.jpg" data-mid="214010285" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/192a9bd6f58fcb80a397baf6b8baa0fb27e06956069a15696892fde56d33b10d/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_05.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1aab7991b999e46306a6457cb19c41ff9f65fcbb9e5f18854e2a87ae3eab84c3/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_04.jpg" data-mid="214010284" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1aab7991b999e46306a6457cb19c41ff9f65fcbb9e5f18854e2a87ae3eab84c3/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_04.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8708162899e3f8b9eb786405022589b95b88db85f11c9a840fddc76586fdaeae/Cottingham_No-map-is-complete-without-innumerable-vast-and-empty-spaces_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="214010278" border="0" alt="No map is complete without innumerable vast and empty spaces, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;No map is complete without innumerable vast and empty spaces&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8708162899e3f8b9eb786405022589b95b88db85f11c9a840fddc76586fdaeae/Cottingham_No-map-is-complete-without-innumerable-vast-and-empty-spaces_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/54890060f1477711fae83d9a4676e4cb9ab3380309e595bf9267ecb659c9baa0/Cottingham_Foreshortening-through-overexposure_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="214010276" border="0" alt="Foreshortening through overexposure, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Foreshortening through overexposure&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/54890060f1477711fae83d9a4676e4cb9ab3380309e595bf9267ecb659c9baa0/Cottingham_Foreshortening-through-overexposure_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1b5b4dd303f3b650071c105e871d9dfcbcd171739e129a56f12a425921a896c1/Cottingham_The-first-metaphor-was-animal_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="214010288" border="0" alt="The first metaphor was animal, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The first metaphor was animal&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1b5b4dd303f3b650071c105e871d9dfcbcd171739e129a56f12a425921a896c1/Cottingham_The-first-metaphor-was-animal_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/916c100b89b88eaac581a745e1f4636ed9b24c318cf83a3044d612a0b3130a5f/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_06.jpg" data-mid="214010286" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/916c100b89b88eaac581a745e1f4636ed9b24c318cf83a3044d612a0b3130a5f/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_06.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fb496d1ba6b7dcd88aaaca227a2c12a16447e7e59cf098452e644e239f66636b/Cottingham_Where-the-soul-casts-its-shadow-upon-the-body_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" data-mid="214010289" border="0" alt="Where the soul casts its shadow upon the body, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Where the soul casts its shadow upon the body&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, thermoplastic bird deterrents, backlit inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 52 x 52 x 3 in. (132 x 132 x 9 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fb496d1ba6b7dcd88aaaca227a2c12a16447e7e59cf098452e644e239f66636b/Cottingham_Where-the-soul-casts-its-shadow-upon-the-body_2024_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_01.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1238" width_o="2200" height_o="1238" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3c02f6cc328fabd2656bc1fd5be52812513c2f8258776bb16a3ab895f97e43e0/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_07.jpg" data-mid="214010287" border="0" alt="Untitled (ambient ArmA), 2024, single-channel video with sound, monitor, low altitude parachute, ropes, hardware, 10 minute loop" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Untitled (ambient ArmA)&lt;/em&gt;, 2024, single-channel video with sound, monitor, low altitude parachute, ropes, hardware, 10 minute loop" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3c02f6cc328fabd2656bc1fd5be52812513c2f8258776bb16a3ab895f97e43e0/Cottingham_Rules-of-Estrangement_2024_install_07.jpg" /> Rules of Estrangement is a body of work produced by hacking and modding the military simulation (milsim) platform ArmA 3. ArmA is a photoreal milsm widely used by law enforcement training programs, private military companies, and enthusiast wargamers. Since its release in 2013, it has gained notoriety for leaked screen recordings mistakenly appearing in national news broadcasts covering conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, and Ukraine. Despite its highly realistic portrayal of military tactics and even post-conflict reconstruction, there are zero women combatants, civilians, or characters in the simulator. The short film As far as the drone can see (2023) therefore bridges the gender gap in ArmA by introducing a female journalist and genderfluid guerrilla fighters into the simulation, charting their covert insurrection as they navigate the complex intersections of gender and war. By integrating historical material into the still-active milsim, the film emphasizes the inherent instability of a virtual world inhabited exclusively by men—a deep contrast to the reality of armed conflicts and their impact on women. These mediations explore how gender roles on the homefront have been historically shaped by the construction of gender roles on the battlefront, and vice versa. A series of lightboxes feature collages made by extracting UV textures from the game platform. These flat and puzzle-like images are mapped onto 3D models to give the illusion of solidity and immersion. Suspended as if airdropped into the space, three looping video monitors feature ambient scenes constructed within ArmA—making use of the slow cinema genre to question the conflation of naturalistic but ultimately escapist depictions of modern war. Throughout, Rules of Estrangement delineates the ways in which this milsim coincides with and departs from the world it purports to represent, and broadly interrogrates the reliance on speculative simulations to inform the realities of policy, law, and media.&nbsp; https://stevencottingham.com/When-the-drone-cuts Tue, 21 Nov 2023 23:56:05 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/When-the-drone-cuts <img width="2500" height="1721" width_o="2500" height_o="1721" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/31d7dd0017ec18c0503969464ba083e8afbad44828e242ee0a6356594389f023/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_01.jpg" data-mid="197556464" border="0" alt="Installation view, When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/31d7dd0017ec18c0503969464ba083e8afbad44828e242ee0a6356594389f023/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1709" width_o="2500" height_o="1709" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4dc7059166d71f2564d98d142097550fafb8f9cc1145d12212f996d928799b4d/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_02.jpg" data-mid="197556465" border="0" alt="Installation view, When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4dc7059166d71f2564d98d142097550fafb8f9cc1145d12212f996d928799b4d/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="1972" height="2500" width_o="1972" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/24b0ec945c8498f8736aeb4acd01cf08952b5f2994076cd19aaa3da662e9d17d/Cottingham_Discounted-so-it-could-be-equivocated_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556443" border="0" alt="Discounted so it could be equivocated (Hunting camo for syncrude tailings pond), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 40 in. (182 x 102 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Discounted so it could be equivocated (Hunting camo for syncrude tailings pond)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 40 in. (182 x 102 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/24b0ec945c8498f8736aeb4acd01cf08952b5f2994076cd19aaa3da662e9d17d/Cottingham_Discounted-so-it-could-be-equivocated_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1765" width_o="2500" height_o="1765" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7c9464892924658e14daf2905d25bb741f2115a486203ac6ab45804ba858ea84/Cottingham_Discounted-so-it-could-be-equivocated_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" data-mid="197556444" border="0" alt="Discounted so it could be equivocated (Hunting camo for syncrude tailings pond) (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 40 in. (182 x 102 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Discounted so it could be equivocated (Hunting camo for syncrude tailings pond)&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 40 in. (182 x 102 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7c9464892924658e14daf2905d25bb741f2115a486203ac6ab45804ba858ea84/Cottingham_Discounted-so-it-could-be-equivocated_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="2248" width_o="2500" height_o="2248" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c5482d116f3fafa5d2b41655de88ff75633c4733eafcb8721bdd13f6f5254b03/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-telephoto-bird-scare_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556461" border="0" alt="The captive eye (telephoto/bird scare), 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The captive eye (telephoto/bird scare)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c5482d116f3fafa5d2b41655de88ff75633c4733eafcb8721bdd13f6f5254b03/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-telephoto-bird-scare_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1746" width_o="2500" height_o="1746" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/401cc23cddad63d45463fb64d9a66be0418e53f2e88dd8c2749656b7fb94cd76/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-telephoto-bird-scare_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_03.jpg" data-mid="197556463" border="0" alt="The captive eye (telephoto/bird scare) (detail), 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The captive eye (telephoto/bird scare)&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/401cc23cddad63d45463fb64d9a66be0418e53f2e88dd8c2749656b7fb94cd76/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-telephoto-bird-scare_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_03.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1674" width_o="2500" height_o="1674" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/511dad125d796f03a1c13413b88daec075008d13ee635dc85fcff199836d8c0d/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_04.jpg" data-mid="197556467" border="0" alt="Installation view, When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/511dad125d796f03a1c13413b88daec075008d13ee635dc85fcff199836d8c0d/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_04.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1742" width_o="2500" height_o="1742" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/18b0d238392108637099ec18e0f0b9e937f75e70d23655c407d65c548a3db5bf/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_08.jpg" data-mid="197556471" border="0" alt="Installation view, When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/18b0d238392108637099ec18e0f0b9e937f75e70d23655c407d65c548a3db5bf/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_08.jpg" /> <img width="1786" height="2500" width_o="1786" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0cc1b7ec9e5a76e6fab5dc46bafc5faed11eb5edd48756302a5094d609bc5f3d/Cottingham_Indebted-so-it-could-be-insured_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556448" border="0" alt="Indebted so it could be insured (Urban camo for arson site), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 43 x 24 in. (109 x 61 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Indebted so it could be insured (Urban camo for arson site)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 43 x 24 in. (109 x 61 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0cc1b7ec9e5a76e6fab5dc46bafc5faed11eb5edd48756302a5094d609bc5f3d/Cottingham_Indebted-so-it-could-be-insured_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1514" width_o="2500" height_o="1514" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ac4ddf85c51e1c4d8cce98ae9bf29ff07aff5662a29ed4af8c6dc14b8ba6228a/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_01.jpg" data-mid="197556441" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ac4ddf85c51e1c4d8cce98ae9bf29ff07aff5662a29ed4af8c6dc14b8ba6228a/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_01.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1514" width_o="2500" height_o="1514" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/32a63b28b7fb999b92825f4fd06502f61db67c6f555e58f5655edb0140111643/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_02.jpg" data-mid="197556442" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/32a63b28b7fb999b92825f4fd06502f61db67c6f555e58f5655edb0140111643/Cottingham_As-far-as-the-drone-can-see_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_02.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1590" width_o="2500" height_o="1590" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ec4e22fab8457e9213d7537c60db42377269b70fe48d89da9d0f9066d3edd1da/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_06.jpg" data-mid="197556469" border="0" alt="Installation view, When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ec4e22fab8457e9213d7537c60db42377269b70fe48d89da9d0f9066d3edd1da/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_06.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="2230" width_o="2500" height_o="2230" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c757ba45df13cbd1c178c4c9d2aa404aae76906ff60c8bcaed455f54e94a2cc6/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-cornea-satellite_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556458" border="0" alt="The captive eye (cornea/satellite), 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The captive eye (cornea/satellite)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c757ba45df13cbd1c178c4c9d2aa404aae76906ff60c8bcaed455f54e94a2cc6/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-cornea-satellite_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="1913" height="2500" width_o="1913" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f991a914e77d994cf8437551517324d96c6e16d04fe902a49b279dcf5561105a/Cottingham_Released-so-it-could-be-reinforced_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556450" border="0" alt="Released so it could be reinforced (Urban camo for East Hastings), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 59 x 59 in. (150 x 150 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Released so it could be reinforced (Urban camo for East Hastings)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 59 x 59 in. (150 x 150 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f991a914e77d994cf8437551517324d96c6e16d04fe902a49b279dcf5561105a/Cottingham_Released-so-it-could-be-reinforced_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="2015" height="2500" width_o="2015" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c6880aa0e2a3ef6df65774b20b79d791cd713ba75a89719114d044d56f8567a7/Cottingham_Released-so-it-could-be-reinforced_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" data-mid="197556451" border="0" alt="Released so it could be reinforced (Urban camo for East Hastings) (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 59 x 59 in. (150 x 150 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Released so it could be reinforced (Urban camo for East Hastings)&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 59 x 59 in. (150 x 150 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c6880aa0e2a3ef6df65774b20b79d791cd713ba75a89719114d044d56f8567a7/Cottingham_Released-so-it-could-be-reinforced_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" /> <img width="1919" height="2500" width_o="1919" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/566c1cf62cf987326ce1891d26262596d3f65dd3954f76cc43b3b3d6042e3164/Cottingham_Sacrificed-so-it-could-be-quantified_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556453" border="0" alt="Sacrificed so it could be quantified (Urban camo for construction site), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 64 in. (182 x 163 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Sacrificed so it could be quantified (Urban camo for construction site)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 64 in. (182 x 163 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/566c1cf62cf987326ce1891d26262596d3f65dd3954f76cc43b3b3d6042e3164/Cottingham_Sacrificed-so-it-could-be-quantified_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="2000" height="2500" width_o="2000" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8c1ecb3b14588ca266007f22bb381402c68d54eeced4f31c7108e8b8ce500071/Cottingham_Sacrificed-so-it-could-be-quantified_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" data-mid="197556454" border="0" alt="Sacrificed so it could be quantified (Urban camo for construction site) (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 64 in. (182 x 163 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Sacrificed so it could be quantified (Urban camo for construction site)&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 72 x 64 in. (182 x 163 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8c1ecb3b14588ca266007f22bb381402c68d54eeced4f31c7108e8b8ce500071/Cottingham_Sacrificed-so-it-could-be-quantified_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="2230" width_o="2500" height_o="2230" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a8a3e56acde971b43d25bed8cefbca7b6295f812ffc0e0325ee77a318c66006d/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-cctv-ocellus_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="197556455" border="0" alt="The captive eye (cctv/ocellus), 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;The captive eye (cctv/ocellus)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, thermoplastic bird deterrents, laminated inkjet print on vinyl, custom frame, 41 x 41 x 5 in. (104 x 104 x 11 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a8a3e56acde971b43d25bed8cefbca7b6295f812ffc0e0325ee77a318c66006d/Cottingham_The-capitve-eye-cctv-ocellus_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="1844" height="2500" width_o="1844" height_o="2500" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/60d6ff6369fd320d4ea236ac52dfe1ceb8da946caed00ddf18377ba1cbbaa616/Cottingham_Enclosed-so-it-could-be-conserved_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" data-mid="197556446" border="0" alt="Enclosed so it could be conserved (Urban camo for property lines), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 43 x 31 in. (109 x 79 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Enclosed so it could be conserved (Urban camo for property lines)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, thread, 43 x 31 in. (109 x 79 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/60d6ff6369fd320d4ea236ac52dfe1ceb8da946caed00ddf18377ba1cbbaa616/Cottingham_Enclosed-so-it-could-be-conserved_2023_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_02.jpg" /> <img width="2500" height="1667" width_o="2500" height_o="1667" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9864a056dc6522b3e18b874ac840b1e36fb769552ac34199fd2014e38fa41d77/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_09.jpg" data-mid="197556472" border="0" alt="Installation view, When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" data-caption="Installation view, &lt;em&gt;When the drone cuts&lt;/em&gt;, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, 2023" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9864a056dc6522b3e18b874ac840b1e36fb769552ac34199fd2014e38fa41d77/Cottingham_When-the-drone-cuts_WAAP_2023_install_09.jpg" /> When the drone cuts, Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver, Canada, November 11–December 23, 2023. PDF here.&nbsp;Rhys Edwards wrote about the show for C Magazine. In a time of war, we bear witness to the unfolding crises of widespread displacement, devastating casualties, and environmental degradation. A flood of images, both authentic and propagandistic, captures imperialistic triumphs and defeats in equal measure. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes evident that not all of these images truthfully depict military operations in the Donbas or Panjshir; instead, some imagery is derived from screen-recordings of the military simulation (milsim) software, ArmA 3. ArmA is a photoreal virtual environment widely used by law enforcement training programs, private military companies, and enthusiast wargamers. While much of this simulated game footage remains confined to social media feeds, select clips have erroneously made their way into national news channels. This phenomenon has persisted since ArmA 3’s public release in 2013, recurrently accompanying news reports on conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, and Ukraine. Despite ArmA 3’s highly realistic portrayal of military tactics and even post-conflict reconstruction procedures, the milsim is troublingly devoid of women. As neither combatants nor civilians, the game contains zero female representations. Developers and users have justified this absence in various ways, citing technical limitations or the perceived irrelevance of gendered (non-male) avatars within a first-person shooter environment. Even the sequel, now in open beta, features exclusively male meshes and animations. Amidst this tension between the game’s photorealistic graphics and its unrealistic representation of wartime gender roles, the short film As far as the drone can see makes use of open source mods to insert a female journalist into ArmA. Embedded alongside a genderfluid guerrilla cell, the film charts their covert insurrection as they interrogate the ability of a simulator to depict conflict without accounting for gender and power hierarchies. As an exhibition, When the drone cuts both extracts from and inserts into the environment of ArmA, delineating the ways in which the milsim coincides with and departs from the world it purports to represent. The virtual ruins of ArmA are materialized within the gallery space, taking the form of textiles adorned with urban camouflage mimicking the desolate construction sites, rubble heaps of redevelopment, and barbed wire fences of the gallery’s East Hastings neighbourhood. However, in the context of Vancouver, the ruins are not intended to signify destruction, but revitalization. By bringing these ambient patterns to the fore, When the drone cuts attends to the latent environmental systems that shape our perception of value. Throughout the exhibition, the drone is deployed as a multivalent figure, redolent of both a distant observer as well as an omnipresent background hum indexing industrial activity. Within the context of ArmA, the drone (literally, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) becomes a way of shedding the ubiquitous male avatar. Finally, the drone manifests as a ruminative song, a suspended note meditating upon a picture of the world inseparable from its mediation. https://stevencottingham.com/As-far-as-the-drone-can-see Thu, 23 Nov 2023 18:57:15 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/As-far-as-the-drone-can-see As far as the drone can see, 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds Embedded alongside a genderfluid guerrilla cell, a female journalist explores the male-only world of the military simulator ArmA 3. Amidst the unending battle of images, they investigate how representations of gender shape the war system—and vice versa. <img width="2560" height="1440" width_o="2560" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5b137748d0c3f9e7e82127cb96622a3a8c91298a5bab55e8cc88518c8b4fa8c1/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h30m39s105.png" data-mid="197703002" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt; (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5b137748d0c3f9e7e82127cb96622a3a8c91298a5bab55e8cc88518c8b4fa8c1/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h30m39s105.png" /> <img width="2560" height="1440" width_o="2560" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4720774759666efbaee370331ef324eee07f213ce7a8a53a5d5891d70b6ab893/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h29m07s369.png" data-mid="197703000" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt; (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4720774759666efbaee370331ef324eee07f213ce7a8a53a5d5891d70b6ab893/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h29m07s369.png" /> <img width="2560" height="1440" width_o="2560" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/36cc759ad7e1cac7f686f3216ef980fa173870701f41b645bb3a25b508fcd175/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h31m27s154.png" data-mid="197703004" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt; (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/36cc759ad7e1cac7f686f3216ef980fa173870701f41b645bb3a25b508fcd175/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h31m27s154.png" /> <img width="2560" height="1440" width_o="2560" height_o="1440" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/01569ac10e71922485c08d59648417ca60f041b59307d9efcf9e67795bacc2b3/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h31m00s936.png" data-mid="197703003" border="0" alt="As far as the drone can see (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;As far as the drone can see&lt;/em&gt; (still), 2023, single-channel video with sound, 15 minutes, 49 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/01569ac10e71922485c08d59648417ca60f041b59307d9efcf9e67795bacc2b3/vlcsnap-2023-08-03-10h31m00s936.png" /> https://stevencottingham.com/Human-Resources-1 Tue, 16 May 2023 19:21:52 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Human-Resources-1 <img width="2200" height="1457" width_o="2200" height_o="1457" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a6bf9254ff92c8680d64e2885a7d3e5e61c364327181df1be34241cc53dd84c0/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_01.jpg" data-mid="178973242" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a6bf9254ff92c8680d64e2885a7d3e5e61c364327181df1be34241cc53dd84c0/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_01.jpg" /> <img width="1717" height="2200" width_o="1717" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/eb3b0bb434b5b79782b5226a873ff72b50c462474c0827db10194d7c6616560c/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_02.jpg" data-mid="178973243" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/eb3b0bb434b5b79782b5226a873ff72b50c462474c0827db10194d7c6616560c/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_02.jpg" /> <img width="1467" height="2200" width_o="1467" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/189d4435afd55ce2b779a1fcbc568696b50c0955cce7892e5c63e5bfddb73b33/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_03.jpg" data-mid="178973245" border="0" alt="If the walls had ears, 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 33 x 6 x 4 in. (84 x 15 x 10 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;If the walls had ears&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 33 x 6 x 4 in. (84 x 15 x 10 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/189d4435afd55ce2b779a1fcbc568696b50c0955cce7892e5c63e5bfddb73b33/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_03.jpg" /> <img width="1418" height="2200" width_o="1418" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a0997229ce0391725ffae06275f415a8930d2f322f9559413c6fe898751b4c61/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_04.jpg" data-mid="178973247" border="0" alt="If the walls had ears (detail), 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 33 x 6 x 4 in. (84 x 15 x 10 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;If the walls had ears&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 33 x 6 x 4 in. (84 x 15 x 10 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a0997229ce0391725ffae06275f415a8930d2f322f9559413c6fe898751b4c61/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_04.jpg" /> <img width="1527" height="2200" width_o="1527" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b4b28e589512a092e5d3f6a4a183557a63f15d1ef80ebcbe087a494935a99acb/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_06.jpg" data-mid="178973249" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b4b28e589512a092e5d3f6a4a183557a63f15d1ef80ebcbe087a494935a99acb/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_06.jpg" /> <img width="1606" height="2200" width_o="1606" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6b0d6e53da6d6b1c5f52627cb411a37d59ca9c56ca0e62fbdc4f61f2eab391ce/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_07.jpg" data-mid="178973250" border="0" alt="If the walls had eyes, 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 32 x 6 x 5 in. (81 x 15 x 12 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;If the walls had eyes&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 32 x 6 x 5 in. (81 x 15 x 12 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6b0d6e53da6d6b1c5f52627cb411a37d59ca9c56ca0e62fbdc4f61f2eab391ce/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_07.jpg" /> <img width="1571" height="2200" width_o="1571" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/058d92a9bca737b453e1b486f29ee83e75e832228b0c9da23c3561b6559ceb34/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_09.jpg" data-mid="178973252" border="0" alt="If the walls had eyes (detail), 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 32 x 6 x 5 in. (81 x 15 x 12 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;If the walls had eyes&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 32 x 6 x 5 in. (81 x 15 x 12 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/058d92a9bca737b453e1b486f29ee83e75e832228b0c9da23c3561b6559ceb34/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_09.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1655" width_o="2200" height_o="1655" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b5ff48a767b6c4c971847b09be01f37ca4081e96126d5364f49591a1b1ef1fb6/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_10.jpg" data-mid="178973253" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b5ff48a767b6c4c971847b09be01f37ca4081e96126d5364f49591a1b1ef1fb6/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_10.jpg" /> <img width="1609" height="2200" width_o="1609" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/03299d4322d5203fab2218846e55e51807cbdb79ba6a5c23e8c71a363fbbff32/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_11.jpg" data-mid="178973254" border="0" alt="Inverse causality (Burggasse, Vienna), 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 28 x 20 in. (71 x 51 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Inverse causality (Burggasse, Vienna)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 28 x 20 in. (71 x 51 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/03299d4322d5203fab2218846e55e51807cbdb79ba6a5c23e8c71a363fbbff32/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_11.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1760" width_o="2200" height_o="1760" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c03009a8eb8cee0fe4674dd724c913289626e2f7dfdfb4e3aa51f43ef17583d4/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_12.jpg" data-mid="178973255" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c03009a8eb8cee0fe4674dd724c913289626e2f7dfdfb4e3aa51f43ef17583d4/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_12.jpg" /> <img width="1563" height="2200" width_o="1563" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9947f5b212121f0e78cb03e2e22a7bc5c8a12a52a322b6bec05f75e1016ba1d4/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_13.jpg" data-mid="178973256" border="0" alt="Biometric ecdysis, 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 36 x 24 in. (91 x 61 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Biometric ecdysis&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 36 x 24 in. (91 x 61 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9947f5b212121f0e78cb03e2e22a7bc5c8a12a52a322b6bec05f75e1016ba1d4/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_13.jpg" /> <img width="1438" height="2200" width_o="1438" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5e30e264aad21b01c656cfc77cc19470ab51845f1eef32c16dbb1f34dba5125e/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_14.jpg" data-mid="178973258" border="0" alt="If the walls could speak, 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 28 x 3 x 2 in. (71 x 5 x 4 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;If the walls could speak&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 28 x 3 x 2 in. (71 x 5 x 4 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5e30e264aad21b01c656cfc77cc19470ab51845f1eef32c16dbb1f34dba5125e/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_14.jpg" /> <img width="1759" height="2200" width_o="1759" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1935f277f68e80de54165fbb8bb49649cee790a12be46a9c565c5c53f6121c0f/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_16.jpg" data-mid="178973260" border="0" alt="If the walls could speak (detail), 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 28 x 3 x 2 in. (71 x 5 x 4 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;If the walls could speak&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, electronic listening devices, welding curtain, pvc, magnets, decal, 28 x 3 x 2 in. (71 x 5 x 4 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1935f277f68e80de54165fbb8bb49649cee790a12be46a9c565c5c53f6121c0f/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_16.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1645" width_o="2200" height_o="1645" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2f4637e9c422729b0950c0d00c36d46b6fa7d51dee149b593bb780bc180d9155/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_17.jpg" data-mid="178973261" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2f4637e9c422729b0950c0d00c36d46b6fa7d51dee149b593bb780bc180d9155/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_17.jpg" /> <img width="1622" height="2200" width_o="1622" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/07ea15713436472720d0919a3b6ac30336fa569c705ed1a9280461324d3e1885/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_18.jpg" data-mid="178973262" border="0" alt="Overseen so it could be overlooked, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, 75 x 56 x 6 in. (191 x 142 x 15 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Overseen so it could be overlooked&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, 75 x 56 x 6 in. (191 x 142 x 15 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/07ea15713436472720d0919a3b6ac30336fa569c705ed1a9280461324d3e1885/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_18.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ba6774e9746ca759e94772f7b29ec0a92eb4b99814d2407aa346a0ee48702db/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_20.jpg" data-mid="178973264" border="0" alt="Overseen so it could be overlooked (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, 75 x 56 x 6 in. (191 x 142 x 15 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Overseen so it could be overlooked&lt;/em&gt; (detail), 2023, reactive inkjet print on canvas, grommets, 75 x 56 x 6 in. (191 x 142 x 15 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/7ba6774e9746ca759e94772f7b29ec0a92eb4b99814d2407aa346a0ee48702db/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_20.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8150f5a505e4175db80795ce04934f177ab2eef11f06f4df0b85fe307abeabd2/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_22.jpg" data-mid="178973266" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8150f5a505e4175db80795ce04934f177ab2eef11f06f4df0b85fe307abeabd2/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_22.jpg" /> <img width="1563" height="2200" width_o="1563" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d76e4a43a2b8f3353a78268c5189577065ab805d7ad46e8b7c8f54ff7745efc/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_23.jpg" data-mid="178973267" border="0" alt="Aberrant cellularity, 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 36 x 24 in. (91 x 61 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Aberrant cellularity&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 36 x 24 in. (91 x 61 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1d76e4a43a2b8f3353a78268c5189577065ab805d7ad46e8b7c8f54ff7745efc/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_23.jpg" /> <img width="1609" height="2200" width_o="1609" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ee959d1e6cba21ae6d49d254a8c172ba480c62b3bc11bb06b8fd17174802943d/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_24.jpg" data-mid="178973268" border="0" alt="Inverse causality (Lower Manhattan), 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 28 x 20 in. (71 x 51 cm)" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Inverse causality (Lower Manhattan)&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, digital inkjet print on vinyl, 28 x 20 in. (71 x 51 cm)" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ee959d1e6cba21ae6d49d254a8c172ba480c62b3bc11bb06b8fd17174802943d/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_24.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1946" width_o="2200" height_o="1946" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/239eb74d93ff7acfe868065fc463f69bfdf1bbd708df141a4f806859cc03f1f4/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_25.jpg" data-mid="178973269" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/239eb74d93ff7acfe868065fc463f69bfdf1bbd708df141a4f806859cc03f1f4/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_25.jpg" /> <img width="1366" height="2200" width_o="1366" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19cc73f4056c7f3f6e56f5878c5fe53c5887e5b8ee14bf0689c9ee095887c638/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_26.jpg" data-mid="178973270" border="0" alt="Cephalopod skin shader, 2023, single-channel video loop, 3 minutes, 22 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Cephalopod skin shader&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, single-channel video loop, 3 minutes, 22 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/19cc73f4056c7f3f6e56f5878c5fe53c5887e5b8ee14bf0689c9ee095887c638/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_26.jpg" /> <img width="1366" height="2200" width_o="1366" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd7094ed7eeb79ecb2d2c9e8869d7a1d21b9d640048dfad97d05834bf7587473/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_27.jpg" data-mid="178973271" border="0" alt="Cephalopod skin shader, 2023, single-channel video loop, 3 minutes, 22 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Cephalopod skin shader&lt;/em&gt;, 2023, single-channel video loop, 3 minutes, 22 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cd7094ed7eeb79ecb2d2c9e8869d7a1d21b9d640048dfad97d05834bf7587473/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_27.jpg" /> <img width="1760" height="2200" width_o="1760" height_o="2200" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5393b3f1c3d3128834ff7da20d15e731034742c159cb389dbe62898f45d2e2e7/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_28.jpg" data-mid="178973272" border="0" alt="Installation view" data-caption="Installation view" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5393b3f1c3d3128834ff7da20d15e731034742c159cb389dbe62898f45d2e2e7/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_28.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1497" width_o="2200" height_o="1497" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1bbdce7a6bf88ed775e3cee84a1e84e7312228bbbeb011d7300f91c084340b7c/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_32.jpg" data-mid="178973276" border="0" alt="Chain&ndash;link, 2021&ndash;2022, single-channel video comprising machinima, 3D animation, and found footage with sound, 90 minutes, 22 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Chain–link&lt;/em&gt;, 2021–2022, single-channel video comprising machinima, 3D animation, and found footage with sound, 90 minutes, 22 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1bbdce7a6bf88ed775e3cee84a1e84e7312228bbbeb011d7300f91c084340b7c/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_32.jpg" /> <img width="2200" height="1467" width_o="2200" height_o="1467" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d742e2843186bcbf7609a5f438674324f8a5dc780f3b00c62e66907d242d8ee9/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_30.jpg" data-mid="178973274" border="0" alt="Chain&ndash;link, 2021&ndash;2022, single-channel video comprising machinima, 3D animation, and found footage with sound, 90 minutes, 22 seconds" data-caption="&lt;em&gt;Chain–link&lt;/em&gt;, 2021–2022, single-channel video comprising machinima, 3D animation, and found footage with sound, 90 minutes, 22 seconds" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d742e2843186bcbf7609a5f438674324f8a5dc780f3b00c62e66907d242d8ee9/Cottingham_Human-Resources_Entre_2023_30.jpg" /> Human Resources, ENTRE, Vienna, Austria, March 31–June 4, 2023. This exhibition is accompanied by an essay, “Ambient surveillance: Computer vision and animal camouflage.” PDF here. https://stevencottingham.com/Ambient-surveillance Wed, 17 May 2023 18:01:24 +0000 Steven Cottingham https://stevencottingham.com/Ambient-surveillance Ambient surveillance: Computer vision and animal camouflage The evolution of computer vision has been rapid and intense. As early as the ’60s, the computer eye was able to extract three-dimensional information from images, then learning optical flow, motion estimation, and now categorizing pictorial elements according to their semantic concepts. In the animal kingdom, vision has evolved independently numerous times over millions of years, giving rise to a wide array of pinhole photoreceptors, compound sensors, and our own eyes whose aqueous structure is shared by all vertebrates. While animal eyesight develops in order to suit the demands of the environment—detecting darkened underwater forms or spotting prey from a distant aerial perspective—computer vision is progressed to gather information relevant for economic, medical, and security purposes. Increasingly, computer vision is tasked not only with aggregating imagery, but with deciphering and understanding it as well. Animals and machines offer two bookends to the human experience—the domestication of animals to aid in agricultural labour changed not only the behaviour and social organization of animals, but also that of their human beneficiaries. Likewise, the development of new technology, spurred forth by different productive needs, serves to alter human societal practices and acts upon us as a form of machinic domestication. These recursive relationships form the environmental pressures under which tentative distinctions between human, animal, nature, and culture hold sway. Central to computer vision is the notion of pattern recognition. In contemporary usage, this term refers to the algorithmic collation of innumerable data points—gathered via mass surveillance as a matter of routine by government agencies and commercial entities—collected, sorted, and filtered until they begin to reveal a pattern. While such an agglomeration of data is far too vast to be comprehended by any amount of human labour, humans can create training sets by attributing labels to a sample of data, and machine learning algorithms can extrapolate to apply their findings to an infinitude of incoming data. Some algorithms work without any oversight at all, comparing and contrasting each data point to come up with ad hoc relationships: distilling novelties into proprietary patterns even if they still look like noise to human eyes. The resulting patterns contain both rich predictive value as well as all of the latent biases and assumptions of their human engineers. That is, the patterns derived from surveillance fuel simulations predicting the future, albeit a future that owes its legibility to the interests and value systems of its beholder. In this way, the probabilistic accounting of surveillance–simulation systems borrow much from eugenic pseudo-sciences that view nature as a competitive (and manipulable) survival of the fittest. On a psychological level, the ability to detect hazards and resources by extrapolating from past experience is crucial to habituation, and this form of pattern recognition is widespread amongst diverse fauna. But some creatures develop counter-techniques to avoid detection by others: in the place of pattern recognition there is the disruptive patterning of animal camouflage. Such patterns serve to confuse the play of light and shadow amongst foliage, breaking up the silhouette of a creature as they navigate the naturally-occuring patterns of their home habitats. Although these tactics have been appropriated for military use—for example the Canadian Disruptive Pattern (CADPAT) uses pixelated forms that bear little resemblance to natural foliage to specifically act upon digital cameras and night vision—what is instructive here is the way in which animal colouration plays two patterns off each other to create a furtive effect. That is, the camouflage operates by situating an abstract colouration amongst the repeating noise of a natural environment. It’s like a visual polyrhythm, where two musical phrases overlap to create a syncopated rhythm operating in several time signatures at once. The combination of multi-scale patterns act upon parallel focal and ambient visual systems to disrupt both detection and recognition. But then there are instances of animal species developing markings that resemble the eyes of predatory birds, or benign creatures mimicking the threatening patterns of poisonous ones. Cephalopods, in particular, possess a sophisticated array of pigmented and iridescent skin cells that can perfectly reproduce the colours of their local environment—an ability that has been proven to operate even in blind cephalopods. Such evolutions call into question the agency of prey: are these capacities evolved sheerly through environmental pressures and genetic variation? Or is there some willfulness, cleverly mirroring predatory eyes back at the beholder? Furthermore, how can these tactics be understood outside the realm of vision, beyond the age-old hierarchies of predator and prey? We may think of the CCTV camera lens as the personified eye of so-called surveillance capitalism—and indeed computer vision has grown quite powerful, obtaining biometric data from the rhythm of your gait or reconstructing audio based on vibrations detected between video frames—but in reality a great deal of data is gleaned from routine behaviours, browser cookies, and invisible images hidden in emails that track when and where you loaded them. This data is best understood as forensic evidence, like dead skin cells and discarded indexes scraped from innocuous sources, pieced together not necessarily to prove what you did, but constantly collected to predict what you will do—or, better, to subtly shape behaviour toward a predetermined outcome. Here is where the actual is substituted for the virtual on a daily basis. A social media feed becomes a feedback loop, no longer intended for you but rather for “someone like you.” Although the events of recent years have offered more insight into the operations of national security agency spyware, the use of aerial surveillance systems by domestic police, and personal data illicitly harvested for political interference, it remains true that advances in technology affect societal behaviour long before laws and rights can provide protective measures. And in the absence of such measures, conflicts arise between extant rights, often resulting in paradoxes between the rights of the individual and the social fabric as a whole. In prison, individuals who are judged to have broken the social contract are disenfranchised of some of their freedoms—including the freedom to information, such as access to the internet. As numerous penitentiaries begin making use of AI-driven surveillance to purportedly increase safety for those incarcerated, then prisoners not only lose access to information, they become commodified as information when their personal interactions are subject to data mining. Such practices date back to 19th century police archives that used anthropometric data to predict criminality based on physical features—ultimating fomenting an incentivized racism. Digital surveillance and data mining have become ubiquitous practices in an extremely profitable industry, while the balance between surveillance and privacy has yet to be enshrined as a human right—much less to what degree incarcerated individuals ought to be able retain this right. In all cases, vision is never merely a passive reception of visual data; it is deeply shaped by contextual necessity and pre-existing value systems. You see what you are looking for. And in an economy where the processing of behavioural data yields industry-defining returns, one tends to see individuals as freely commodifiable resources, even if it means violating personal boundaries and overriding rights to privacy. What we can learn from the sophisticated crypsis tactics developed by animals is the importance of context in obscuring legibility: the predatorial gaze is not simply negated or escaped, it is also redirected, something else is served up for scrutiny, lost in the noise of the local environment and all the overlapping rhythms of daily life. The countershading of the rat&nbsp; snake or the ocellus of the owl-moth are woven into the existing patterns of other entities occupying the same habitat, all while fomenting a hidden, syncopated pattern—illegible to those who do not know what they are looking for. –March 2023