JOSH LEE sheds some light on pornography’s latest venture.
Have you ever had an erotic Where’s Wally-themed fantasy? We start with an aerial view of an innocent, exquisite landscape: a sweeping shot of a magnificent, undisturbed mountain range… but wait. Something moves at the periphery of your vision. Something disturbs the peace of the landscape and shakes the lonely bushes. What’s that red and white thing poking out from behind the tree?
It’s Wally’s willy. Oh. It’s Wenda without her suspenders. Oh. His pastille blue jeans dropped below his knees, her bobble hat now used as a gagging instrument, THAT walking stick doing terrible, terrible things, it’s our childhood memories tainted by carnality and ruined forever.
Well, lucky/unlucky for you, my article might summon mental images of this harrowing scene but it does not physically materialise the vision. What it presents, however, at the click of a button, is not a far cry from my nonplus Wally-Wenda dreams.
May I introduce ‘Drone Boning,’ a hybrid of an art project and a political statement, carried out through the collaboration of an unmanned aircraft and the captured intimacy of a select few. The directors of this viral sensation, Brooklyn-based filmmakers Brandon LaGanke and John Carlucci, do not categorise their work specifically as pornography, but instead they deem it as an insight into “the artistic value of this [the drone’s] perspective”. Inspired by the ever-growing concerns of invasion of privacy and the militaristic connotations of drones, the idea of ‘Drone Boning’ was intended to challenge such implications through this truly unorthodox piece.
“The plan was to take beautiful landscapes,” LaGanke stated,“and just put people fucking in them.”
With an escalated perspective of a genesis-esque landscape, accompanied by Taggart and Rosewood’s lethargic Daft-Punk-inspired track, the opening scene of the video deceptively induces a feeling of innocence and serenity – until the humping kicks in. The visual context surrounding the fornication throughout is, however, both extremely varied and undoubtedly well-considered from an aesthetic perspective; from a derelict playground to the bonnet of a convertible, and there’s even a well co-ordinated threesome amongst hilltop shrubbery (…ouch.) Perhaps it is this artistic altercation, away from the type of documented sex that we are used to, that explains the video’s comedic and rather unerotic nature. Despite featuring a rather revealing, albeit brief, close-up, not even the most randy adolescent would consider reaching for the table-top Kleenex.
What is most notable and, perhaps, most praiseworthy about this video is its incorporation of diversity across several variants: men and women, men and men, women and women, men and two women, black, white, old and young. Whilst the porn industry is dominated by the youthful, straight, caucasian and cosmetically-altered, this NSFW video imposes the message that sex is an occasion to be enjoyed by all. Moreover, the lack of artificial moaning and groaning and cringe-worthy scripts takes the viewer far away from an idealised conception of sex. This turns Drone Boning into an avant-garde piece; itt achieves something that is not to meant to arouse us or be used for our own personal entertainment, but rather makes us both question the essence of the video and laugh at the concept with a degree of discomfort. Rather than belonging in the shameful deleted history of our web browsers, the video would perhaps be more suited on display in an Art graduates degree show.
This is by no means an accident: as with every film, every component selected by the filmmaker is deliberate. LaGanke told the Daily Beast: “We didn’t want to get beautiful heterosexual white people, we wanted to mix it up. We wanted to mix the races, age, we wanted it to be real people which is why in some of the shots you see an older women, an older man, not the greatest body, that was an objective: to make this real.” This is an astute consideration that can certainly be appreciated by our booming liberal culture.
Despite its controversial nature and contentious morality, the porn industry has the undeniable potential to transcend itself through a range of materials – from the dated medium of oral traditions (ha) to our constantly upgraded consumer goods. Now, as shown by LaGanke and Carlucci, it has the power of the drone at its disposal – does this mean the idealism of ‘Make Love Not War’ can finally be realised?
VIDEO AT: http://www.droneboning.com
STILLS AT: http://www.droneboning.com/stills/
