Distance AB is a short narrative video based upon a text from Albert Einstein’s book RELATIVITY, The Special and the General Theory. Einstein when defining a methodology for the system of co-ordinates proposes that if a cloud is hovering over Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, that in order to measure its position in relation to the earth, we should erect a pole up to it.    

Distance AB depicts a man carrying out the act of raising a stick up to a cloud. Opening with scenes of Potsdamer Platz undergoing reconstruction, the film cuts to a man lying on the ground surveying the sky above him. As he lies there he raises a stick up to the sky.  The stick appears to reach the cloud when seen from his point of view while lying on his back looking up at the cloud.

“Every description of the scene of an event or of the position of an object in space is based on the specification of the point on a rigid body (body of reference) with which that event or object coincides.  This applies not only to scientific description, but also to everyday life.  If I analyse the place specification “Potsdamer Platz, Berlin,” I arrive at the following result.  The earth is the rigid body to which the specification of place refers; “Potsdamer Platz, Berlin,” is a well-defined point, to which a name has been assigned, and with which the event coincides in space. This primitive method of place specification deals only with places on the surface of rigid bodies, and is dependent on the existence of points on this surface which are distinguishable from each other.  But we can free ourselves from both of these limitations without altering the nature of our specification of position.  If, for instance, a cloud is hovering over Potsdamer Platz, then we can determine its position relative to the surface of the earth by erecting a pole perpendicularly on the Square, so that it reaches the cloud.  The length of the pole measured with the standard measuring-rod, combined with the specification of the position of the foot of the pole, supplies us with a complete place specification.  On the basis of this illustration, we are able to see the manner in which a refinement of the conception of position has been developed.” Extract from Albert Einstein, Relativity, The Special and the General Theory, London, Routledge, 1999. 

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