The early 20th century ushered in the proliferation of the vox humana, the human voice, transcending the bounds of average human limits. Radio waves crossed the diameters of the earth with historical precedence. Decades later, we traveled beyond our planet and the earth was photographed for the first time by the NASA Voyager Probes, altering our perception of the immensity of the universe and the smallness of our world. Our understanding of reality continues to be shaped by technology and how we use it to explore the unknown. Distant Transmissions explores ways in which the subjectivity of photography can be used to rewrite and reimagine a history that includes the powerful role of the female explorer. The handmade prints in this series are grainy, out of focus, abstract landscapes. The nature of these print processes illuminates the tension between the innate ability of the photograph to record and our desire to re-experience memories. What we remember is a copy of an experience at best. Our memories begin to change and break down from the moment an experience happens. The aesthetics of the images in this body of work, the in-between nature of the photographs, demonstrate a lack of literal representation-- the layering, covering up, and altering of memories through process. One of the methods used to mimic the break down of memory is Gum Bichromate, a photographic process that has a grainy, soft focused quality. This process creates an obscured, otherworldly aesthetic. Distant Transmissions examines the history of the human experience through photographs, objects, performance, and sound.
Christine Zuercher is an astronaut and member of the American Interterrestrial Society. She was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio and received a BFA from the University of Dayton in 2011 and an MFA from East Carolina University in 2016.Her research is on shortwave radio, the Space Race, and transmission technologies with a focus in interdisciplinary and alternative photographic processes. She is a 2019 Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award recipient and 2019 Coca Art Prize finalist. She has a national exhibition record and was a featured performer at Harvard College and the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California for the Media Arts Xploration festival in2019. Her work can be seen in publications such as The Hand Magazine and Light Leaked. She enjoys photographing interplanetary adventures with collaborators and friends while in her spacesuit.
Feel free to email Christine with any comments or outer space related inquiries at zuerchcd@gmail.com #Americaninterterrestrialsociety