By Katie Gach | Video
This project, titled “From,” explores ideas of nationality and nostalgia in the context of off-world living. What will it mean to be “from” a place when humans literally have no ground to stand on?
In an imagined future in which humans live in the sterile, built environment of a space station, nostalgia for Earth could survive in artistic forms like songs, poems, and stories. Those who maintain these cultural artifacts will hold a capacity for connection to others from those places, even after the generations who knew those places are gone.
To imagine this future, I interviewed dozens of people who currently live outside of their place of origin. Each of them shared a song, story, or poem unique to that place, and speculated about the reaction they’d have if they heard someone sharing that piece in their current context. These audio recordings are played over live footage from the HD cameras attached to the International Space Station as it orbits Earth.
