Dear All,

I’m currently at an artist’s residency at the Banff Centre in Canada and I’m starting on a new project that is a culmination of my past projects.
You can see my website here http://www.merveunsal.com
And a project here http://www.merveunsal.com/try

I have been thinking about airports as a public space, which is driven by current events and yet seem to be separated from the rest of the world through the very specific security concerns that seem to govern it post 9/11. As many of you may know, a few weeks ago, a “romantic” graduate student from Rutgers went into the “cleared” section of the airport to kiss his girlfriend and the Newark International airport was closed for many hours due to the “security breach”. The man is now arrested as the authorities are trying to determine what the appropriate punishment is for paralyzing one of the most important airports in the country.
I would like to compile people’s thoughts on airports. These thoughts can range from long essays on the nature of these public spaces to anecdotes to a few words that you think about, when I mention airports and in particular, airport security.
It is only by collecting your experiences that this project can achieve its goal of reflecting public sentiment about airports. In this sense, “sentiment” can mean your intellectual, physical, philosophical, political, legal or other reaction to airports. The framework of presentation will depend on the nature of responses received, making it an interactive project both for me, the artist and the participant.

I’m hoping this is going to be a viral project, as people spread this message to their friends and friends of friends.

All responses will be anonymous (and acknowledged, upon request) and I’m in the process of coming up with a framework and a domain for this online resource.
If you have any questions and concerns, do not hesitate to contact me at merve.unsal@gmail.com.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you and thank you in advance for forwarding this.

Best,
Merve