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