Based on the chapter 2 of the publication As long as there is time to sleep (2016), Artificial stars unfolds on a personal laptop space composed of excerpts from and interventions into the chapter, a video call with the artist’s sister in the opposite time zone, an 8-hour long YouTube video of a fireplace, collected images and digital drawings. It muses on how the interdependence between the technologies of light, visibility and activity (dis)connects bodies and emotions.
The work juxtaposes the temporalities of GIFs, YouTube videos, video calls, device batteries as well as typing—as an interaction/translation between the machine and the human. Interweaved with these are: a history of artificial light and a glimpse of the 1990s Russian project Znamya, which involved orbital reflectors mirroring the sunlight towards the dark side of the Earth. Together, these point to (in)voluntarily imposed or disrupted rhythms of sleep, bodies, images and longings.
