singing eye > Planecrash

Planecrash 2000

made on request of British composer John de Simone
concept and music John de Simone
video Mendel Hardeman
music performed by m.Use ensemble
original format video (DV-PAL, 4:3) with live music

John de Simone had a deadly fear of flying, so I was very curious when he told me he was writing a piece called Planecrash. It was a very fast piece, tempo 120 bpm (as John said, "the rate of my heartbeat when I'm sitting in a plane"). Soon I myself got involved in it - he asked me to make a video for the end of the piece, a sequence of a few minutes of planecrash footage. So I started searching for it. I was amazed by finding out how much material there was on the internet, from videos to black box recordings and "last conversation" transcripts.

I made a sequence of about 5 minutes - a child playing with a paper plane and putting it on fire, followed by a very bloody series of violent real-life crashes. I also made a recording of a little girl's voice, playful and very excited, speaking the phrase "...and then Osama bin Laden came and put a bomb in the plane!", to be inserted right after the paper plane scene, but I decided not to use it in the end. It was 9 months before the destruction of the World Trade Center. After that happened John started talking about making a sequel, using those most photogenic and most videotaped plane accidents ever. I wasn't very interested.

performance history
20.12.00, Arnold Schönbergzaal, Den Haag
23.02.01, Festival Royal, Korzo Theater, Den Haag