Millions in the Sky

We are in the digital and information age. Information - images, photos, databases, maps, spatio-temporal and GPS data is at our fingertips on the very phones in our pockets, and often fed to us 'live'. Such open data is provided by governments to 'be freely accessible, to be used, modelled, shared by anyone for any purpose without restrictions.' We can track planes, trains and automobiles, ferries, and buses - and the people in them. This access provides many benefits but raises problems of privacy, misuse, safety, surveillance, cyber stalking and terrorism. After learning of the staggering estimate of there being a million people in the air at any one time around the world, the negative environmental impact of air travel weighed heavily on our minds. Flight data of Brisbane airport was captured and stored in a custom database and used to create an art-work to represent the sheer number of flights, the activities and intrigue of the aviation world along with its symbols, signs, code and imagery. Mars Collaborative 2024