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You and I have always existed under a single sky at a single point in the universe. Tonight we can look up and gaze upon the same moon, even if we stand alone. In the grand expanse of the universe, we are remarkably close.

while the stars remained… considers parallel paths that may one day intersect. The piece begins with images collected from magazines, books, and scientific texts and arranged toward their poetic possibilities; the text is adapted and rearranged from Planets, Stars, and Galaxies by Stuart J. Inglis.

The work is part of that which we cannot ever expect to see, a series of poetic assemblages considering photography’s representation of the universe. With visible tears and folds as evidence of physical touch, the images meditate on an impossible embodied relationship to galactic forms. Through a drive to get closer to the cosmos, to bodies of unfathomable scale at impossible distance, human bodies (be)hold interstellar bodies.

What does it mean to remember, to know something that can never be touched? How do photographs create memories of the universe? How might we get closer to knowing the unknowable?

There are three ways to experience this piece: on your laptop or mobile device as a single-page scroll; in a more traditional book-like layout; or printed as a zine on letter-sized paper, either on a double- or single-sided printer. If using a single-sided printer, first print the odd-numbered pages and then re-insert the printouts to print the even-numbered pages. Fold the printed pages in half and bind them together as you choose.