Shadow fleet, 2025
video installation

Shadow Fleet is an interdisciplinary artistic project at the intersection of experimental animation, political media critique, and data-driven visualization. It investigates how digital transparency is strategically manipulated in geopolitical and economic contexts—focusing on maritime opacity tactics like AIS spoofing and dark activity.

Through the lens of forensic aesthetics, the project approaches digital traces not as neutral representations, but as contested sites of knowledge production. Centered on the case of the oil tanker Atila, which vanished from AIS systems in November 2024, Shadow Fleet reconstructs a speculative scenario of illicit ship-to-ship transfers. Using 3D animation, cartographic data, and abstracted graphics, the film highlights the cracks and distortions within supposedly objective datasets.

Rather than aiming for documentary truth, Shadow Fleet explores the aesthetic and political implications of absence, uncertainty, and selective visibility. It critically reflects on how visibility itself has become a commodified, conditional resource—shaped by economic interests and infrastructural constraints. The project ultimately asks: How can we visualize what is designed to remain unseen?



© 2025 Lena Kalleitner