Flying through code/space: the real virtuality of air travel

摘要

Commercial air travel is a key global industry facilitating the complex daily movements of\udplanes, people, goods, and services across the world. In this paper we analyse contemporary air travel\udthrough the conceptualisation of a culture of real virtuality.We contend that air travel now consists of\udpassage through 'code/space'. Such code/space includes travel websites, check-in, security check-\udpoints, flight decks, air-traffic control, immigration, and customs checkpoints, which together form\udassemblages that define the practices and experiences of air travel. Code/space is qualitatively differ-\udent to coded space, in which software influences the production of space, in that code and space are\udmutually constitutedöproduced through one another. This mutual constitution is dyadic so that if\udeither the code or space 'fail', the production of space 'fails'. Our formulation of code/space is non-\uddeterministic and nonuniversal, and how code/space operates and is experienced is embodied\udthrough the performances and interactions of the people within the space (between people, and\udbetween people and code). In this sense, code/space is constantly in a state of becoming. We illustrate\udthe nature of code/space, and the discursive regimes that support its production, and demonstrate\udhow the code/spaces of an air travel are simultaneously local and global and induce Castells' notions\udof 'space of flows' and 'timeless time'.