Denver International Airport, Denver, Denver, CO

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The design of the concourse provides spectacular vistas, allowing observation of the nearby mountains as well as the surrounding runways. From such a vantage point, it is often difficult to grasp the true scale of what we see outside, instead more easily relating to the generous spaces inside the terminal. This brought to mind a 1968 film by Charles and Rae Eames entitled “Powers of 10”, which starts with an overhead image of a couple at a 10-meter view and then begins to slowly pull back by powers of 10 every 10 seconds revealing our size relative to the world around us. In the same way, I found it interesting that as often as many of us travel by air, our only perception of flying is from inside the cabin. Bringing the outside to the inside, I imagined the image of a full-scale passenger plane appearing inside of the terminal, inspiring us to think about our perception of both the size of the space that we are in and that of what we see outside the windows.

 

Rendered in mesh, the appearance of the plane will change depending on the lighting, the time of day and from which direction one encounters it – sometimes appearing to hover in the space above us while other times seeming to fade into the ceiling overhead. Its almost dream-like appearance is intended to speak about how we often take the ability to fly for granted and to remind us of how we have historically idealized its role in journeying to far-flung destinations.

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