and the earth sighed

and the earth sighed is an immersive video and sound environment that encourages contemplation about our relationship to nature and technology. The normalisation of drone warfare and drone surveillance is becoming an increasing concern to all. But drones can have other uses. Starrs & Cmielewski use drones to capture still and moving images of Australian landscapes. They re-imagine the relationship between nature and culture by presenting aerial views of Australian landscapes and waterways dynamically manipulated in ways that reveal their underlying fragility. Starrs & Cmielewski also use a drone to record a dancers’s site-responsive performances in the natural environment. In response to the persistently intrusive drone, the dancer exhibits a range of different emotions, including curiosity, agitation, engagement and resignation. The drone drifts across degraded landscapes, and rolling sand hills, seeking out the fragile interfaces, the edges, between lands lost to the desert and land fending off the relentless encroachment of sand and fire. Exhibition dates: 17 November 2014 - 3 January 2015