BIO

https://afish.ca/2018-2020-The-Aesthetics-of-Infrastructure-Transportation

Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS or drones) are a relatively new technology in a nascent stage of development. The ability to accurately maneuver a camera at high altitudes to inexpensively produce high-quality photographic imagery is a remarkably powerful technological development. The ability of RPAS to operate from these elevated perspectives – well above those previously made possible by stands, booms, scaffolds or tripods – invites many new subject explorations.

My research interest is in building an archive of RPAS images and videos that document the edges of urban/built environments. The Aesthetics of Infrastructure: Transportation is an exploration of the physical framework of the roads, buildings, intersections and parking lots of contemporary urban territory mingling with natural environments.

The images are presented on screens as moving stills – short video loops that offer insight into the organizations and patterns of the framework of urbanity.

The 2020 version of the project documents the reduced traffic activity of the major arteries around the HRM as a result of COVID-19 provincial state of emergency. The ongoing collection of ‘moving still’ videos can be shown at a variety of scales and contexts. The two-minute-long video clips can be viewed individually or stitched together and looped for an infinitely long viewing experience. The work can be shown as a physical projection, as an online installation, or shown individually on physical displays according to curatorial factors and considerations.

In 2019, the PHOT 2800: RPAS (Drone) Piloting for Media Artists class was introduced as the first Transport Canada compliant credit class in Canada, placing NSCAD on the cutting edge of new photographic technology and tools. It was offered in conjunction with the Canadian Drone Institute, and taught by Adrian Fish, who holds a Small Advanced RPAS licence and is a Transport Canada certified RPAS