Flying Objects, Sitting Still, Killing Time

Abstract

To address hyperaesthetic culture, this essay examines a particular transition zone of contemporary human life: the modern phenomenon of air travel, and how airport and aircraft inhabitance underscore the object-ness of airline passengers. I move between cultural criticism, literature, and visual texts, and I illuminate understandings and representations of the temporal experience of air travel. Specifically, I demonstrate how aesthetic depictions of aircraft seats and airport seats suggest a recurrent contiguity between these two distinct modalities: being in-flight, and being on the ground.