The drone both embodies and documents the decay of Earth systems. As a networked computer technology, it is built from metals and minerals extracted from the Earth. As an elevated and mobile camera, it records vast infrastructures, industrial rivers, and mass extinction on the ground below. The drone is a creative tool that comes from and witnesses destruction. This article explores how the drone’s form and function indexes degenerate ecocinema through discussion of four drone videos I have recently produced: Points of Presence (2017), on internet infrastructure across North Atlantic islands; Crash Theory (2019), on endangered life throughout the world; Overburden (2022), on hydrocarbon fuel infrastructure in Australia; and Organic Machine (2022), on the labouring Mersey River of Liverpool, UK. This article accompanies an installation of these videos in the Open Eye Gallery’s LOOK Climate Lab in Liverpool, UK, January 2022.

无人机体现并记录了地球系统的衰变。作为一种联网的计算机技术，它是由从地球上提取的金属和矿物制成的。作为一个高架和移动相机，它记录了大量的基础设施、工业河流和地下的大规模灭绝。无人机是一种创造性的工具，它来自并见证了破坏。本文通过讨论我最近制作的四个无人机视频，探讨无人机的形式和功能指标如何退化生态电影：存在点（2017），关于北大西洋岛屿的互联网基础设施；Crash Theory (2019)，关于世界各地濒临灭绝的生命；Overburden (2022)，关于澳大利亚的碳氢燃料基础设施；和有机机器（2022 年），在英国利物浦劳苦的默西河上。2022 年 1 月，本文在英国利物浦的 Open Eye Gallery 的 LOOK 气候实验室中安装了这些视频。