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SHORT FILMS
ABOUT FLYING
 
Short Films about Flying is a networked installation by Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead in which an open edition of unique cinematic works are automatically generated in the gallery, and in real-time from existing live data found on the world-wide web.
Each ‘movie’ (replete with opening titles and end credits) combines a live video feed from Logan Airport in Boston with randomly loaded net radio sourced from elsewhere in the world. As this relatively good quality video stream is taken from an existing commercial website where its visitors are able to remote control the camera, each ‘movie’ is ‘shot’ and ‘paced’ by its own (albeit unsuspecting) camera person.
Additionally, text grabbed from a variety of on-line message boards is periodically inserted, appearing like cinematic inter-titles when viewed in combination with all the other components. The result is a coherent yet evocative combination of elements that produce an endlessly mutating edition of low-tech mini-movies that we call, Template Cinema.
Short films about Flying now only exists as a simulated archive because the resources it uses have now expired online. However we have developed a sequel called Short Films about Nothing, which you can find out about here