. . .
with nanna neilsen

LONDON FLIGHT (Working Title) is a longitudal filming of the voluminous and continuous stream of aeroplanes that glide through our city on the Heathrow flight path. Every plane from sunrise to sunset on one day in Spring will be filmed

The aeroplanes will be filmed from six never before seen high views of London that will be sewn together. It will create a cityscape, a story about London unseen and untold before

Our film is a study of the sublime beauty and destruction embodied in a modernity masterpiece; the aeroplane and its relationship to the city and our subconscious public realm, our shared horizons and mental and vertical shared space

It is essentially a very simple idea

. . .

Aeroplanes have reached a new level of relevance and significance in our everyday lives and critical consciousness, primarily as a result of contemporary events, September 11th 2001, climate change and globalisation.

Aeroplanes are furthermore acknowledged by theorists and analysts as being significant in reshaping time across the planet, along with being a critical factor in formulating key global cities, such as London as command and control centres

Alongside the aeroplane being an important element in contemporary life, flight and mobility have been major ongoing narratives from our ancient lives and civilisations (the wish to fly and to be mobile)

There is perhaps no other object that combines sublime beauty and wonderment with such profound elements of destruction and danger. The aeroplane is the double-sided story of our time. Below is a crude table highlighting some of these counter narratives:

BEAUTY & DESTRUCTION

Technological triumph / Modernity’s complacence

Engineering marvel / Climate Change

Hyper Mobility / Escape / refuge / asylum

Global Time / Globalisation dependence

Exploration / Highjack / crash

Globalisation / Values and Land Values

Love Affairs / ‘non time’ wait & pre journey

Adventure / Homogenisation space/place

Every aeroplane and every flight is constantly on the edge, always on the precipice of falling between all of these elements. London’s sky is one of the busiest. Roughly 3600 aeroplanes fly in the London sky every day

. . .

nanna and i await news of a recent funding application / would like to thank sarah ichioka, dickson & russell, tom foxcroft, philipp rode and amanda white for their letters of support