Joseph DeLappe: The Cowardly Drones

Title:

The Cowardly Drones

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Creation Year:

2013 – 2014

Medium:

Digital image, search engine intervention

Artist Statement:

The Cowardly Drones is a series of interventions that attempt to subvert online images searches for weaponized drones. DeLappe downloads top search results of various UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in use by the United States Military, including General Atomics MQ1-Predator Drone, MQ9 Reaper Drones and Global Hawk Drones. Each image is carefully manipulated to digitally include the marking COWARDLY upon its fuselage using typical military fonts. The saved images are then uploaded to the internet with basic titling information Predator Drone, Reaper Drone, Global Hawk Drone. The objective is to force the revised images into image searches by the general public, causing a subtle intervention into the media stream of US military power.