Terminal cycle

TIM WHITE-SOBIESKI
Terminals: Series of five videos (2001-2003)
Terminal I - Day At The Terminal (2001)
Terminal II - Terminal At Night (2002)
Terminal III - Terminal Dream (2003)
Terminal IV - On The Wing (2003)
Terminal V - Terminal Heart (2003)
The "Terminal" project by Tim White-Sobieski is a series of 5 one-channel videos that are about transitions in our lives, both emotional and physical. The artist lived and worked in immediate vicinity of the in New York in September 2001. 9/11 events directly influenced creation of the series "Terminal" because White-Sobieski could not stay in the city and took numerous flights across the country and overseas when the airplanes flew virtually empty in after-attack scare. In this series, air travel becomes a metaphor for the inconsistent or lost identity typical of contemporary art; the artist uses this metaphor in a sense to eliminate time and space itself as the template with which we view the world. The Terminal seems to be set for a multi-layered reconnaissance of globalization, "homeland security", faith, America and, ultimately, the consciousness of an average contemporary person. But "air travel" is still a metaphor that depends on a scheduled departure and arrival time, one that takes us on a predetermined flight path. Terminal manifests psychological landscapes ("mindscapes"), within an imaginative structure of time spent at an air terminal, rather than is merely concerned with the metaphor of departure. Rippling waves of ambient music and color stir up blissful trance. Soft lighting, soft sound and walls of windows that frame this video stream are full of the signature images and recurrent themes White-Sobieski develops from now on.
The first one is the ("Day At The Airport," 2001-02), the second - ("Terminal At Night", aka "Flight In The Night," 2002-03) and the third one - - were released in 2003. All videos have the background music by Brian Eno and J. Peter Schwalm from their album "Drawn From Life" (2001). The films present stand-alone loop animations recorded on DVD and are based on non-video animation techniques.
"Terminal 1" is a single channel video/sound installation. Terminal 1 contains imagery of the Charles de Gaulle Airport during the day, interchanging with abstract animations resembling oceanic waves. The aerial footage was shot over New York very few days after September 11.
The artist is raising the question of mediation and vicarious existence to the level of an art form, epitomizing the time bubble we live in, which is the parallel space generated by snippets of media images. It also marks the shift from real to hyper-real, which occurs when representation is replaced by the permanent simulation of a non-referential world, as Baudrillard states in "The Ecstasy of Communication".
TECHNICAL DETAILS ON THE PROJECTS:
Terminal I, (Terminal by Day) 2001-2002.
1-channel digital video/ animation loop, HD format, released on DVD and Blu-ray, color, stereo loop, 6:59 minutes. Music by Brian Eno & J. Peter Schwalm (soundtrack "Bloom" from the album "Drawn From Life", 2002) (Catalog)
Exhibition format: Plasma monitors or projections. Surround sound, 4 speakers
Terminal 2 (Terminal At Night), 2003
1-channel digital video/ animation loop, HD format, released on DVD and Blu-ray, color, stereo loop, 7:40 minutes. Music by Brian Eno & J. Peter Schwalm (soundtrack "Persis" from the album "Drawn From Life", 2002)
Terminal 3 (Terminal Dream), 2003
1-channel digital video/ animation loop, HD format, released on DVD and Blu-ray, color, stereo loop, 8:10 minutes. Music by Brian Eno & J. Peter Schwalm (soundtrack "Night traffic" from the album "Drawn From Life", 2002)
On The Wing (Terminal IV), 2003
1-channel digital video/ animation loop, HD format, released on DVD and Blu-ray, color, stereo loop, 12 minutes. Soundtrack by Brian Eno from the album "Music For Airports"
Terminal 5 (Terminal Heart), 2003
1-channel digital video/ animation loop, HD format, released on DVD and Blu-ray, color, stereo loop, 10 minutes. Music by Brian Eno & J. Peter Schwalm from the album "Drawn From Life", 2002
Bibliography
# [http://www.opacmeiga.rbgalicia.org/DetalleRexistro.aspx?CodigoBibliotecaPMB001&Rexistro783&Formato=ISBD TIM WHITE: TERMINAL, Exhibition catalog], Editorial: Museo de Bellas Artes Santander (Santander), Edición: 1ª; Fecha Edición: 2003 ISBN 84-88185-53-1
# [http://www.opacmeiga.rbgalicia.org/DetalleRexistro.aspx?CodigoBibliotecaPMB001&Rexistro783&Formato=ISBD Tim White: TERMINAL, Exhibition catalog], Published by Pilar Parra Gallery, 2003, Edition of 1000, Bilingual (English/Spanish) ISBN 0-9676171-46

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