There is nothing you can think that is not the moon

Abstract

Our proposed project is a curated digital catalogue of objects which we have collected for over 20 years. Including over 400 different objects, each has been carefully photographed on all of its sides. These recorded surfaces are reconfigured digitally as if the object has been flayed and flattened, enabling the object to be printed two dimensionally. Once printed and cut out, the surfaces can be folded to create a three dimensional, realistic facsimile of the original. While the mimic lacks the actual history of the original, the duplicated aging and wear patterns persuade the viewer otherwise. Can these imposters truly conjure up the ghosts associated with the original? Is the copied souvenir capable of fulfilling the role of a real souvenir? Objects that were collected on trips, childhood favorites, marked our teenage years, or were given to us by our now-deceased grandparents, appear to provide us with a connection to our past. However, in reality they are as material bound as their paper twins.
 
 We have shown the entire collection of printed duplicates as an ephemeral installation in the form of a life-sized thrift store. Printed on translucent acetate, the objects now transformed into lanterns and were given away during a community light festival event. Dispersing the collection in this way is a play on gift giving, allowing the piece to diffuse and the objects to begin new histories.
 [See video link for installation: https://vimeo.com/341254142]
 We want to continue this idea of dispersal by posting a collection of the objects to be available for online printing, for anyone to produce themselves. Depending on space available, this collection could be a handful of curated images, or a more extensive selection. Each object would be accompanied by a small text outlining where and when the original objects was found. We have selected a few of these as examples of what the project would look like; these are on the following pages (at a lower resolution than what is possible).