A walk down memory lane by devoted umbraphiles, those who are addicted to walking in the shadow of the moon... Seven voices, ranging in tone, depth, age, experience and perspective, talking about the single most transforming celestial event, a total solar eclipse. The vignette is played on MP3 players arranged in any open space under the sky. Mats provide a surface for people to lie under the sky / stars and listen to the piece. There is an intimacy to the experience. As few as one, as many as 50 people lying down together gazing up at the sky, mimicking the act of amateur astronomers world over, and like them linked by common experience, in this case of the audio files, of the experience of this ‘collective rest or sleep’.

Devasher Shadow Walkers

The night sky is ambiguous. It represents a blank canvas and surface on which individual desires, thoughts and feelings can be mapped and projected. Celestial phenomena such as stars, planets, and nebulae are imbued with special meaning or affection, becoming an intimate part of the individuals who gaze up at them.

Both cosmology and fiction share a quest for pattern and meaning. In both cases we could also say that it is the viewer/reader who as an active agent imparts existence to the work and completes its meaning through interpretation.

The piece is divided into three sections, Reading into the Stars which explores the deep psychological attachment between the astronomer and the night sky. The Social Imaginary which questions the idea of the astronomer as a solitary figure and finally The Strange which explores the poignancy and strangeness of some of these histories.

The voices you just heard were of three people in whose lives astronomy has played a central role in very different ways. The first was Raj Shekhar, an amateur astronomer and I think philosopher, Lorraine Daston, a Historian of Science and most recently Director of the Max Planck institute for the History of Science and finally Vishnu Reddy one time amateur astronomer and now a Scientist at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

Rohini Devasher

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