The Bitplane video captures an aero-portrait of a richly mythologised territory - the Silicon Valley in California, home to the largest concentration of wealth in California since the Gold Rush. The Bitplane’s mission takes it deep into the heart of the Valley, to view the source and progress of the Information Age. Due to its tiny dimensions, the Bitplane is able to enter territory inaccessible to other aircraft.
One of the issues the Bitplane engages with on this reconnaissance flight is the threat of the camera to information space. Cameras are not permitted into the corporate research parks in teh Valley, according to the logic that visitors could steal intellectual property by taking photographs. This reveals an assumption that information is something you can photograph, a thing - not the product of a community or expertise or a social network of shared discourse but something you could steal with a camera.
From the Artist Statement provided for PROOF exhibition, Dec 2004.
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Collection
In ACMI's collection
Previously on display
13 February 2005
ACMI Screen Gallery
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
B1006591
Language
English
Sound/audio
Audio Format/Stereo
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
Digital Betacam; Sub-master
Digital Betacam; Master
DVD [PAL]; Exhibition Copy
VHS [PAL]; Reference - timecoded