Archinect - Features 2024-12-24T12:04:52-05:00 https://archinect.com/features/article/84447208/air-rights-an-exhibit-by-drone-research-lab Air Rights: an exhibit by Drone Research Lab Michael Abrahamson 2013-10-18T15:17:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/w2/w2b2blz9w4yl91xd.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>The printed <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/upnqdqqai4ndcfu/AIR_RIGHTS_DIGITAL_PROGRAM.pdf" target="_blank">catalog</a> for &ldquo;<em>Air Rights</em>&rdquo; &ndash; an exhibition by the <a href="http://droneresearchlab.com/" target="_blank">Drone Research Lab</a> (DRL) at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning &ndash; begins with a <em>Bartlett</em>'s-worthy quote from R. Buckminster Fuller: &ldquo;You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.&rdquo; It is often observed, on the contrary, that unmanned aerial vehicles, unlike the billion-dollar state-of-the-art fighter jets they are replacing in some military applications, are a cobbling together of existing technologies. None of their components (aside from advanced optical sensing) is inaccessible to everyday consumers, and the mechanics would likely be familiar to Fuller himself.</p>