SPLITTING INFINITIES [ THE ABSTRACTION OF MODERN TRAVEL ]

Umberto Boccioni, the Italian Futurist, recognised the disconnected psychological, temporal and geographical phases that you experience when travelling. In his 'States of Mind' paintings, he acknowledged three distinct conditions: The Farewell; Those Who Go; and Those Who Stay. 

For me, travel represents nothing but the anxiety of alarm clocks, check-in deadlines, and air turbulence.Therefore, when I have to catch a plane, I will not eat or drink all day, as I'm too paranoid about being in an air crash on a full stomach. Starvation over a long-haul journey inevitably sends the body into shock, and therefore heightens the sense of disorientation, terror, and paranoia. Only when I have achieved this ideal state, do I start thinking like a true artist.

Despite all the negative aspects, travel can still be a pleasure. For example, I'm a huge fan of Switzerland. I love how it's so clean: Clean houses, clean lawns, clean towns, clean mountains. They even have clean air. I go there at every available opportunity, sometimes even for three hours at a time.

The pictures in this series represent another possible addition to Boccioni's 'States' - The Stop-Over.

Source of inspiration, below: Zurich Airport's sparkling concourse and lines of perspective.

My point, is that disorientation inevitably leads to abstraction, and when that occurs you must seize the opportunity to record it.

So, when deciding on a new 'wallpaper' design to go in the background scroll of my pop-culture blog, I remembered all those shiny surfaces in Zurich airport's concourses, and thought that they might be appropriate. For the current edition of my blog, I wanted something dystopian, robotic, sinister and Ridley-Scott-looking.

I have a folder of 'real-life abstract photographs', and I used repetition to see what effects I could achieve. 

Note: No other CG techniques were used. These are unretouched photographs, simply cropped, flipped, and repeated.

Below: One of my first Zurich Airport abstracts, from 2012.

Below: Back in 2012, I must have photographed this logo as a possible inspiration for a future 'Alexi K' logo.

The only thing that bothers me about flying, is being up there and suddenly not flying.

An example of Financial Abstraction, below: 

Hide your billions from your government, and celebrate your good fortune by eating chocolate gold out of a miniature vault.

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Below: The Alexi K 'Smiley Man' logo, inspired by the old Swiss Air 'box logos'. I was aiming for just the right amount of corporate and frivolous.