Melissa Laing (PhD) is a New Zealand artist and theorist who has been exploring aspects of international air travel in her art and research for the last eight years. She has studied in New Zealand, Holland and Australia, most recently completing her PhD Exploring the Transit Zone : between here and there at the Sydney University in 2008. Her PhD examined the construction of international air travel through border control, security, management of space and movement and the extreme responses of passenger to the environment of air travel. She has presented her research at conferences in Australia and the United States and exhibited her art widely in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic and Germany. In 2006 a multi screen film project she contributed to, Trip - remix your experience, had its European premiere at 59th Festival de Cannes, Marché du Film. Her art practice spans film, performance, installation and sculpture