Are We Gazing at the Same Moon?

Yufan Xie

Are We Gazing at the Same Moon? Are we living in parallel worlds? Does empathy connect us across barriers? The moon has long been a symbol of collective human experience, appearing in art, literature, and philosophy as a means to explore time, space, and memory. Its familiar presence connects people across distances, eras, and cultures, serving as a shared point and connection. Yet, how much of our experience of the moon is truly shared? What if, the act of moon-gazing is more fragmented and subjective than we realize?

This artwork establishes a ritual of moon-gazing, presenting a massive image of the moon composed of multiple stitched fragments. As the camera gradually zooms out, the spaces beyond each fragment are slowly revealed—not as part of a continuous whole, but as different imaginary moons. Ascending through a constellation of moons, the world fractures into divergent trajectories, scattering and reuniting in an endless cycle. 'One thousand people, one thousand moons' - the boundary between individual emotions and collective memory dissolves. In astronomical photography, the Lunar Mosaic technique is used to construct high-resolution images of the moon by collaging captured sections, each taken at different times.

This project experiments upon a moon image captured by NASA in 1992. However, the artwork employs generative AI to push beyond the known boundaries of each fragments, imagining the unseen portions of the celestial body, revealing the dislocation and discontinuity within the whole. By showcasing the parallel existences and possibilities of the moon, it constructs a surreal picture.

Project Collaborators:

Artist/Director: Jeyun Sound Artist: Ziqian Yin Supports received from: Spectra Studio Youth Digital Group Today Art Museum Shenzhen MOCAUP Denver Nightlights