[-empyre-] in situ about airports

[zina kaye <zina@laudanum.net>]

Melinda asked me to follow form and say a few words about my own work:

About "The Line Ahead"

I discovered that you could pick up the continuous broadcast from airplanes 
using specialised equipment. So I worked out how to write a programme which 
displayed the flight numbers, origin and destination in the gallery - as 
they happen. You can see the result online at www.thelineahead.net.

I had this belief that the work would only have an effect on people if it 
showed events live. Thankfully, this turned out to be true. People tell me 
that they recall events from their lives - saying goodbye to a loved one& a 
significant change as a result of travel. I'm very happy to see people 
reliving their memories and emotions - that's the kind of response I was 
hoping for.

Some people are more interested in the technical side of the work -which is 
great because I know there are huge numbers of people out there who are 
entertained by innovative science. They like to hear about how I got an 
antenna on the roof of Melbourne Airport and how the programme works.

I've wanted to do this work for about eight years - so I'm very excited 
about finally seeing it happen in such a monumental place like ACMI.

The title of the work  - The Line Ahead - is inspired by the big queues of 
planes, waiting to take off or land.

Conceptually I think that Jenny Holzer and Rebecca Horn are very important. 
My work could be seen as repeating Holzer's ideas, but instead of using 
aphorisms, I'm using the information itself as the statement of humorous truth.


About me

I grew up under the flight-path in London.