Political protest has always incorporated the technologies of its time. In Israel’s 2023–2025 anti-government demonstrations, civic drones operated by protesters have become central to documenting mass gatherings from above, producing striking images of scale and density. Within this ongoing documentation, however, lies a second and more deliberate practice we call drone protest choreography: collective performances staged for the drone’s gaze. Groups of protesters arrange bodies, props, and movements into aesthetic shapes, words, or tableaux that are embedded in specific sites such as beaches, intersections, and plazas, and crafted to convey protest messages. In this sense, drones do more than record; they become integral to how protest is imagined, staged, and circulated, shaping the visibility and meaning of collective action.
We analyze these practices through Tali Hatuka’s (2018) typology of protest choreography (spectacle, procession, and place-making), while extending it to account for drone-specific attributes. Based on interviews with drone operators and protest organizers, on-site observations, and analysis of drone images, we trace how performances are co-produced by material practices, infrastructures, and aesthetics. The choreography depends on assembling heterogeneous elements including bodies positioned in space, props and costumes, rhythms of movement and music, as well as organizational infrastructures such as batteries, Google Sheets, WhatsApp groups, and communication between ground and air. These practices co-create spectacular images designed specifically for the drone’s vertical and horizontal gaze, which can motivate further participation, transforming demonstrations into immersive, aesthetically resonant experience.
