Lights will guide you home
digital video/machinima (1920 x 1080), color, sound, 10’ 17”, 2022, Germany
Created by Sebastian Schmieg
On Twitch and YouTube, gamers stream how they fly over a digital copy of our world using flight simulators — some curious, others dutiful, and quite a few in the service of virtual airlines following official flight schedules. During their flights, they are often guided by other gamers who participate as air traffic controllers. Sebastian Schmieg regularly watches both pilots and air traffic controllers and collects and archives their virtual work. In the winter of 2020, Schmieg exhibited a collection of video clips showing gamers configuring their aircrafts in their virtual cockpits. In a new iteration of his work, titled Lights will guide you home, they drive to the runway, accelerate and take off, soaring into the skies of Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Sebastian Schmieg investigates the algorithmic circulation of images, texts, and bodies. He creates playful interventions that penetrate the shiny surfaces of our networked society and explore the realities that lie behind them. Specifically, Schmieg focuses on labor, algorithmic management, and artificial intelligence. He works in a wide range of media including video, website, installation, artist book, custom software, lecture performance, and delivery service. Schmieg’s work has been exhibited internationally at The Photographers’ Gallery London, MdbK Leipzig, HeK Basel, and Chronus Art Center Shanghai. He lives and works in Berlin and Dresden.
