In spring 2021, American University of Central Asia’s (AUCA) Television, Cinema, and Media Arts and Liberal Arts and Sciences departments combined to partake in a drone-shooting workshop. In the first workshop of the two-part series, AUCA Professor Adilet Karzhoev instructed participants in how to use the drone for aerial photography and filming. Most participants in the first workshop were members of AUCA’s “Being in the Present by Living in the Past: A Digital History of Soviet Kyrgyz Towns” project, which captured aerial footage and photographs of Kyrgyz towns and cities that have received little public investment since Soviet times and have thus retained their Soviet architectural and spatial character. These photographs and footage will be used to give researchers and community members new ways of contemplating and theorizing how the Soviet legacy continues into the present.

The second workshop of the series was open to all interested AUCA students and faculty. This workshop taught additional shooting skills. Participants shot aerial footage and photographs around AUCA’s campus. These images provide helpful visuals for the digital and physical exhibition of AUCA’s My Name, My Story project and may also be used for AUCA’s community outreach and student recruitment.