Interimaginary Departures

Janet Zweig, 2021

 

Interimaginary Departures is a departure lounge at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport that sends you to over 120 fictional destinations found in literature, film, animation, and games.

 

 

The lounge intersects the airport walls and furniture at a seven degree angle. It is located next to Gate 14, and is housed at Gate ∞.

 

 

Interimaginary Departures includes a flight information display board listing flight times and destinations with their respective interimaginary airlines, and a departure board with facts about current destinations. There is a cast bronze ticket machine where, after answering a questionnaire, you can receive a printed or virtual ticket. There are also announcements giving you instructions and information about the upcoming flight.

 

Interimaginary Departures was commissioned by the Austin Art in Public Places program.

 

 

Post your photos at #interimaginarydepartures

 

About the artist: Janet Zweig lives in Brooklyn, NY, and works primarily in the public realm. Her public works include a pair of rolling signs in Seattle, Escape Destinations, that display the names of fictional locations, a kinetic installation on a pier on the Sacramento River, a performance space in a prairie on a Kansas City downtown green roof, a sentence-generating sculpture for an engineering school in Orlando, a 1200′ frieze at the Prince Street subway station in New York, and a system-wide interactive project for eleven Light Rail train stations in Minneapolis, incorporating the work of over a hundred Minnesotans. Her sculpture and books have been exhibited widely. She currently has a residency with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Sustainability. She teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.

 

Many people worked on Interimaginary Departures, including and especially:

3-D rendering and design assistance: Kyle Hittmeier

Project managers: Tamara Johnson & Kim Turner

Fabrication: Blue Genie Art Industries & Brian Daly & Peter Lokken

Graphic design and logos: Tom Kluepfel & Chuck Robertson

Media: MuseWork Exhibits

Research: Eric Pitty & Molly Roy

Art In Public Places: Curt Gettman & Susan Lambe

Department of Aviation: Rohini Kumarage & Cory Hurless

Site superintendent: John McLaughlin

Voice actor: Peter Drew

Upholsterer: Carlos Castaneda

Machine maker: Tom Haddad

Carpet: Talal Zubair & Bilal Butt of ABC Carpet Custom Studio

Project title: Jena Osman & Amze Emmons

Advisor: Shelly Willis