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Racing toward the Future at “Ready\Set\Fulfill”

Video Jun 2021

Are drones the future of our cities? As societies’ desire for speed and efficiency accelerates, retail giants like Amazon are  exploring the potential for remotely operated vehicles to colonize the airspace, leaving terrestrial traffic jams far behind. In their exhibition at De Sarthe gallery, “Ready\Set\Fulfill,” Hong Kong-based artists Andrew Luk and Samuel Swope created installations that form a first-person-view (FPV) drone racecourse, with references to Amazon’s patent for a beehive-like fulfillment center, Paul Virilio’s concept of “dromology”—in which the philosopher imagines society as akin to a race—as well the futuristic architecture of modernists like Antoni Gaudí and the Metabolist group. For one Saturday in late April, Luk and Swope brought together a crew of FPV racers for a day-long tournament to test out the track and give audiences a view of this emerging field of technology.