Aircraft (F.A.L.)

2015-2021,  single channel video projection, black & white, stereo audio

Aircraft (F.A.L.) was recorded with a camera in an empty factory hall. The scene was created and added with the aid of an elaborate 3D model. A hybrid representation that skilfully creates the illusion of a photographic reality.
The 'assembly line' in Aircraft (F.A.L.) is not arbitrary. "Working with synthetic images is operating in an extremely fragmented world where masses of details pretend to be a totality", explains Claerbout referring to the work of neuropsychologist Iain McGilchrist and his theory about divided attention. “The synthetic image does indeed have something pathological about it, similar to the fragmented sensorial world of the schizophrenic patient.”
The airplane in Aircraft (F.A.L.) with its airgrade aluminium carcass, which like all airplanes is designed to overcome gravity, is caught in the Cartesian coordinate system consisting of millions of polygons. Seeking to disrupt the linearity of our experience of time by introducing intersecting layers, Aircraft (F.A.L.) features an object that appears simultaneously unfinished and redundant, as if it were a newly discovered sarcophagus. Likewise, the factory hall - where the future is being produced - is confounded with the museum - where the past is being made. 

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