In the Air @ Whitney, Intense Media Submersion

In the Air, an art installation @ the Whitney Museum by NYC-based artist, T.J. Wilcox is a circular video that suspends the viewer high above NYC.  The 360 degree, continous film captures the city as the sun & shadows shift casting you in a magical twilight.  The powerful, silent footage with subtitles grabs your attention, making it impossible to look away.  There is footage of zeppelin travel and the fatal crash that has been relentlessly replayed.  There is an interesting film of Gloria Vanderbilt following her life & the media frenzy surrounding the custody battle fought by her Aunt Gertrude Whitney.  Both films are harbingers of the public's infinite fascination with disaster & today's celebrities.  The most riveting and distressing footage is the interview of a "glorified super" who was an eye witness to horrors of 9/11 from the roof of his bulding.  His straightforward account of shock & then horror begins with the plane that moments before flew low over his building crashed into the side of the Twin Tower.  He ran to get his binoculars, which he deeply regrets as he watched in disbelief bodies falling from the building & the incredulous destruction.  The super then speaks of the young man who worked in the building for years with the ambition of becoming firefighter.  The young man achieved his dream just a month prior to the 9/11 attack in which he lost his life.  You cannot avert your eyes, nor should you.  In the Air is a visceral experience that invokes awe.