Terminal Measures
For centuries, flight has been seen as the ultimate expression of freedom. Vestiges of this notion remain today, though our contemporary interpretation may have more to do with the ability to travel and operate as global citizens than with a temporary release from the shackles of our earth-bound nature.
The tension between flight as an abstract, symbolic concept and its physical realities has been at the heart of much of Ri Williamson’s recent work. Her latest project, Terminal Measures, presents an airport security zone in both spatial and sociological terms. Constructed to resemble an architectural model, the fluid, soaring lines of Williamson’s suspended platform recall the romantic mimicry of flight and movement seen in the design of many modern airport terminals, such as New York’s TWA or the Incheon Passenger Terminal in Seoul. This architectural lyricism, however, is silently contradicted by the security areas, where labyrinthine barriers, identity checks, fortified thresholds and surveillance devices denote restraint and control.
In Williamson’s sterile and sanitised simulacrum, a demonstrational DVD directs travellers through the security process, issuing a series of precise, non-negotiable commands. We are instructed to remove coins, mobile phones and keys from our pockets, then take off our jackets, shoes and belts before we and our belongings can pass though an armoury of metal detectors and x-ray machines. As Williamson illustrates, this process not only underlines the fear and paranoia that now accompany international air travel, but also suggests a ritualised divestment of individuality. As potential passengers, we shed our independence and submit unquestioningly to the demands of a faceless, authoritative voice, before joining a homogenous mass of ‘secured’ travellers. It is hard to imagine a more telling rebuttal of the concept of flight as an embodiment of personal freedom.
The increased social compliance and obedience demanded by governments in the name of preserving individual freedoms is one of the many ironies of a post-9/11 world. In the tightly secured universe of an airport, we accept a degree of control and dominance that we would question out in the ‘real’ world. Interestingly, after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, some commentators suggested that the high level of passivity and submission engendered by air travel contributed to the ability of lightly armed and outnumbered terrorists to overpower planes full of passengers.
As Williamson’s highly regulated diorama makes clear, through the careful fusion of architectural and operational systems modern airports can be, and are, deliberately designed to promote optimum compliance. That many of us now take invasive security measures for granted suggests we are becoming increasingly desensitised to them, a situation with concerning implications for any expectations we hold regarding personal liberty and free will. After meekly completing the protocols required of us in Terminal Measures and heading, presumably, toward the departure gates, a larger question lingers: we may have cleared security this time, but where exactly are we heading?
Text by Felicity Milburn
