Art for the Spy Plane

Back in 2020, when times seemed dire and everyone in the world was, for the most part, “homestuck”, several (hundreds of thousands) of us decided to take to the streets to represent our stark opposition to unnecessary and ultra-violent police behavior.

Namely, the “George Floyd protests”, as they came to be known, were an important moment for people - all people, in my opinion - in the sense that, despite the dangers wrought by global pandemic, a palpable need to show a level of disgust with the current situation had emerged. For a number of weeks, and in some places, months, direct actions and demonstrations were organized around the nation. History was being made.

Due to a full-time engagement in my hobbies during this time (I wasn’t an “essential worker” which meant less job, more hobbies), a contemporary, albeit local, phenomenon came to my attention - while out walking (one of my hobbies) I noticed a small, seemingly private, airplane had been circling sections of Baltimore city, for what seemed like days on end. No matter where I went, there it was, circling, like a large, white vulture. Checking all my flight radar apps, I was truly confounded by what I saw. At almost all times during daylight hours, the plane’s route carved a near perfect circle around specific parts of the city, only occasionally peeling off its route to gas up or change pilots. I was familiar with shock trauma and news chopper routes, and considered that someone was training, but after weeks of observation, I concluded that this was different - the flight pattern was the same that military surveillance planes demonstrate when they are observing an area or looking for something in particular. Except when they do it, it’s from 60-80,000 miles up, or it’s a Chinook rescue mission. This plane was cruising peacefully, low enough to see the registration number, and maybe even the pilot with a good pair of binoculars. Trust, when one of your special interests is weird holding patterns, you tend to notice these things before a lot of other people do.

Anyway, this plane happened to become local news, and even garnered national attention for a moment - long story short, it was discovered by the general public that a private surveillance company, Persistent Surveillance Systems (PSS), had been orbiting the city for less-than-vague, “commercial” reasons, one of them being, through contract, to inform and assist law enforcement in controlling lawfully gathered citizens by tracking their locations with a painfully obvious, noisy, old Cessna with a giant box camera affixed to the bottom of it. All in the name of “public safety”, I suppose.

Another special interest of mine is independently challenging questionably constitutional surveillance techniques and censorship, of any kind - as a person sensitive to the squashing of free expression, it’s important to remember that wherever there are cameras, there is always a someone watching. Even in the age of fledgling AI, I promise you it holds true. When making artwork, it’s ludicrous not to consider the gaze of every audience you can. This means even when being critical, whether deliberately disregarding them or calling them out.