Jessica Arseneau
For Alicia Catalina Godinez Leal, 2022
Video HD, audio stereo
4:33 min.
"The dead astronaut is going to be brought back to Earth. She wanted to be buried on Mars. She said that when she realized she was dying. She said Mars was the one thing she had wanted all her life, and now she would be part of it forever. But the Secretary of Astronautics says no. He says her body might be a contaminant. Idiot.
Can he believe that any microorganism living in or on her body would have a prayer of surviving and going native in that cold, thin, lethal ghost of an atmosphere?"
Part excerpted from "The Parable of the Sower" (1993) by Octavia E. Butler
This short video is a visual poem for the astronaut in Octavia E. Butler's dystopian novel.
Camera, video editing: Jessica Arseneau
Sound sample: [Ambient Loop] Deep Ambiant Pulse 2 by waveplay SFX from freesound.org
Sound recording, editing: Jessica Arseneau
