FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Entertainment

Artist Rajeev Basu Creates A Series Of Bumper Stickers For Drones

Imagining what the future accessories market for drones might look like.

You could say that artist Rajeev Basu has been a little bit obsessed with drones lately. In what has become a trilology of works he's taken an idiosyncratic look at drones and their possible future, exploring how they might journey from something that confuses and fascinates us into an everyday piece of technology that we grow to adopt.

His first project let people create their own customised drone with Mr Drones, a satirical web app that lets anyone design their own drone in pretty colors and MS Paint style patterns. Then he got some pros involved and asked a selection of artists to create their own designer drones that might fly about the skies of New York in the near future.

Advertisement

His third part is called Slap A Drone and is equally quirky. Following along the idea that drones will one day be welcomed into our lives like so many machines before them, this project looks at bumper stickers for drones. It's part of a group show at the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art and for Basu's piece he'll enlarge a sticker pack (above), illustrated by artist Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, to 44x36 feet which will be hung on the wall.

"Drones are always in the news." Basu says "And soon, thousands will be flying over our own skies. But then, what's all the fuss about? Is this really the end of privacy? Or could they be useful? Or fun, even? The media is always buzzing with hype and end of days scenarios. So over the past year I've been creating little art projects to help people decide for themselves."

The stickers are a colorful, comic book-styled series of make-believe pop art accessories which also contain "slightly darker undertones". Although it may seem preposterous and amusing now, as drones become a more common sight in the endless azure above our heads and thus become normalized—in a the-truth-is-always-stranger-than-fiction way, it's not too farfetched to imagine these kind of secondary, frivilous, accessories industries springing up so people can make a quick buck and personalise their UAVs.

LACDA's Ninth Anniversary Exhibit starts today and runs until 4th May.

@stewart23rd