ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how an artwork’s representational and symbolic content has the capacity to affect passenger behaviour. It considers a few artworks that point to the technologies and processes used to facilitate passenger movement. The chapter focuses on a series of artworks installed at Schiphol in 1995 that critically reflect upon the experiential aspects of moving through the terminal. It argues that these works not only deviate from the usual types of works installed in airports but that they also critique the functions that air terminal installations are expected to serve. The Farman biplane replica and some these artworks hardly resemble commercial aircraft or recall the types of flight paths taken by these passenger jets. Artworks that convey themes of unconstrained movement parallel a related type of aesthetic that is used in the automotive industry for commercial profit. Singapore’s Changi airport has also commissioned an interactive artwork, but it moves at a far slower speed.
