19/10/2018 TÉLESCOPE INTÉRIEUR

INNER TELESCOPE
A poem written for and realized in zero gravity

Eduardo Kac

For over thirty years I have been exploring the limits and possibilities of an expanded notion of poetry, one
that has close relations to the materiality of science and technology. I create poems that push language into
unforeseen realms of experience.

In the 1980s and 1990s I developed holographic and digital poetry. In doing so, I participated in the
international movement that established the foundations of contemporary media poetry, as thoroughly
documented in my book Media Poetry (Bristol: Intellect, 2007). In 2007, as the first poet-in-residence at the
Biennale de Poètes en Val-de-Marne, I held a solo exhibition of my holographic, digital and biological
poems. In the same context, the Biennale de Poètes published an anthology of my poetry entitled Hodibis
Potax (Paris: Éditions Action Poétique, 2007). In this book I published a manifesto of Space Poetry, in
which I defend the idea that new possibilities will be created for poetry when language can liberate itself
from the constraints of gravity.

Inner Telescope, the first space poem I have actually realized, is articulated around the word “MOI,” which is
organized geometrically as a symmetrical three-dimensional object. Inner Telescope has no top or bottom,
no front or back. It is composed of a letter made of a two-dimensional surface (M), another letter made of
empty space (O), and a last letter made of a three-dimensional cylinder (I). As an empty cylinder, the letter
“I” traverses the “O” placed in the center of the “M,” enabling the reader to see the other side of the
environment through the hole in the “I.” This spatial arrangement creates a poetic image that connects the
“self” (moi) with its surrounding environment through an opening. This opening stretches the letter “O” to
the two ends of the cylinder, becoming an eyepiece and evoking both ends of a telescope. Far from our home
planet, we can point our poetic instruments towards our subjective interior and, thus, ponder on our future on
Earth and our ever-expanding place in the universe.

The letter “M,” when seen from another perspective suggests a human form. In this case, the tubular form
protruding from the navel evokes a cut umbilical cord and, thus, produces the image of humans severing the
ties that bind them to their origins (our planet). In addition, the overall architecture of the poem remotely
evokes the intersection of planes and cylinders that characterize the external form of the International Space
Station (ISS). It also retains stylized traces of the Hubble’s overall form.

When an astronaut sees the Earth from space, he perceives the global multiplicity of the planet as singular:
our home. Inner Telescope proposes a mirror image, in the sense that the singular “moi” stands here for the
collective self: humanity.

Beyond its lyrical dimension, Inner Telescope offers three specific contributions to the development of space
art: 1) it’s the first poem written for and realized in zero gravity; 2) it’s the first visual work physically
handmade outside of the Earth, thus making it an extraterrestrial art piece; 3) it is the first performance
conceived for and carried out outside our home planet, and is entitled “Performance for 1 astronaut, 1 pair of
scissors and 2 sheets of paper”.

I conceived Inner Telescope to be fabricated out of paper—a material always available onboard the ISS—and
deployed in a zero gravity environment. On Earth, the three-dimensional form would be extremely fragile
and easily distorted; however, in the weightless environment for which it was conceived, Inner Telescope
experiences the isotropic forces that characterize zero gravity. They act on the entire work simultaneously,
holding it suspended in space and sustaining its intended form and function. Inner Telescope gives continuity
to my vision of poetry in weightlessness and outside of the Earth, and pushes creative writing into an entirely
new realm.

Kac Web

http://www.ekac.org/inner_telescope_english.html 1/2
19/10/2018 TÉLESCOPE INTÉRIEUR

http://www.ekac.org/inner_telescope_english.html 2/2