Crescent Malavet

CATCH THE DRONE, 2023. Phenakistiscope. 

While surveillance technologies have been growing in number and complexity each day, they have also been executed at an increasing distance -  codes, robotics, drones, DNA trackers. Less embodied by real people and often less visible to the human subjects they’re patrolling, allowing privacy and autonomy to be breached more smoothly in mass quantities. The background of the phenakistiscope is paper embedded with DNA containing items I collected from friends and family over many months - chewed gum, nails, hair, floss, tissues, blood that has blended into the fiber, etc. The images are people and vehicles from surveillance camera live streams from the streets of New Jersey and New York. When the phenakistiscope is spun and viewed through a mirror, the hands appear to chase the drone that surveils the pedestrians.