Drone Eats Drone: American Scream by Ken Rinaldo 2013
1) Immediate Response
I was initially drawn in by the title cover image of the piece. There were two planes head to head diving into each other, and I was intrigued to see what was attached underneath. At the start, it looks like a weird tripod on a Roomba robot within a brick cage. It seemed like a science fair project. The piece moves around and rotates within the confined space. You will only see the red siren light and tiny home once you look a little closer. This made me think of two planes circling above a house of importance, such as a military base. I perceived the blocks as something to keep the object in place and for aesthetic purposes.
2) Objective Description
The piece consists of an actual Roomba vacuum cleaning robot with a mini countryside house model with humans and farm animal figures on top. Also, within the Roomba landscape is a silo with a small red orb and scatted amount of trees and shrubs. Attached to the robot is a camera tripod where two reaper strike drones crashing into each other are positioned about 4 ft above the ground. There is then an 8ft by 8ft ring of cinder blocks and miniature speakers, keeping the robot confined.
3) Technical Decisions
The Artist made a couple of technical decisions that enhanced the work of art. First, the landscape of the countryside house is very meticulously constructed. There is immense detail, giving the work a realistic feel. Regarding the tripod and drones, they seemed low priority and were glued on pieces. Using a Roomba robot makes me believe these pieces were lying around the Artist’s house and were constructed after he had an idea. One remarkable aspect of the Roomba robot is that it is digitally reprogrammed by the Artist to share similar algorithmic tendencies as military robots.
4) The Work in the World
This artwork is unique and based heavily on military and technological evolution. I have yet to see many works of art that compare to these pieces regarding creativity. Its use of a Roomba and drones show how much technology is taking over our world. In many cases, it helps productivity and makes more incredible advances as a society. On the other hand, technology can be used destructively, like drones, and humans can sometimes become too reliant on it. As a society, we are discovering the power of programming in tools such as chatGBT, and learning to control these technologies carefully will be the future of our world.
5) The Story it Tells
The interpretation of this work is different from what I would have expected. After combining the previous ideas, Ken Rinaldo is trying to show how society will have to deal with both ends of the spectrum as autonomous robots become more relevant in our world. Drones have become a common practice for nations in an undeclared war to gain power politically, militarily, and economically. A country having a platoon of drones that can autonomously fly over any land is a highly daunting weapon. Ken wants to emphasize that these robots will contribute to the ongoing war with the risk to harmless civilians. As society pushes for autonomous robots like Roomba, it also supports companies that directly produce military robots that can cause terror. As the Roomba seeks to clean every part of a carpet, countries are looking to use military-industrial complexes to counter and impose their will onto other countries.