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 their journeys over a replica of our world using flight simulators — some curious, others dutiful, and quite a few in the service of virtual airlines following official schedules. In the course of their missions, 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 his video Lights will guide you home, pilots drive to the runway, accelerate, and take off, soaring into the skies of Microsoft Flight Simulator before landing safely at their destination – always accompanied by air traffic controllers.
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.
