A Collection of Ephemerides
Moira Roth began the Library of Maps in 2001 as an ongoing series, which has grown to 41 texts about an imagined library, its contents, inhabitants, and history. For this issue, Roth contributed two enigmatic texts on abstract applications of mapping—one describing the (dis)appearance of astronomical phenomena, and the other the paths of sleeping minds. Excerpts from this project are presented in conjunction with Joanne Easton’s new work, Untitled (Insatiable): a video in which Easton entwines telescopic images of deep space, cycles of growth and regeneration, and paradoxical combinations of what would otherwise be vast distances and unmappable relationships. Collectively, the video and two poems chart changes in time and space between celestial events and our own accounts of them. They plot a line from the events described in ephemerides (tables showing the positions of astronomical objects) to the commonplace experience of ephemera (in the form of maps, manuscripts, and their markings).
THE LIBRARY OF MAPS
Moira Roth
UNTITLED (INSATIABLE)
Joanne Easton