Drones, Citizenship, and Forced Migration

Shadows and Flows: Drones, Citizenship, and Forced Migration

A Conversation with Tomas van Houtryve

Tomas van Houtryve is an artist, photographer, and author who engages critical contemporary issues around the world. Among these issues are the use of drone technology and the fallout of post- 9-11 anti-terrorist policies, writ large. In 2013, van Houtryve began working on Blue Sky Days, a drone’s-eye view of America. The series was awarded the 2015 ICP Infinity Award and honors from POY, World Press Photo, the Photographic Museum of Humanity, and the White House News Photographer’s Association. In addition to Blue Sky Days, van Houtryve will present and discuss a new body of work in which he employs augmented reality and social media streams to capture the diaspora of migrants, primarily Syrian migrants, throughout Europe. The discussion will be moderated by Professor Jayne Huckerby, Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Duke University Law School.

Presented in collaboration with the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Co-sponsored by the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, and the Duke Human Rights Center@FHI. As part of the exhibition Dispatches, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is pleased to present the work of Tomas van Houtryve, and to host him as a guest speaker in locations across North Carolina, including Duke University’s Forum for Scholars and Publics. Dispatches is a multi-platform exhibition gathering and generating artistic responses to the news by contemporary artists and photojournalists.