Inner Telescope

Inner Telescope is a poem created aboard the International Space Station (ISS) with the assistance of French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who realized it on Saturday, February 18th, 2017. Inner Telescope was specifically conceived for zero gravity and was not brought from Earth: it was made in space by Pesquet following my instructions. The poem was made from materials already available in the space station. It consists of a form that has neither top nor bottom, neither front nor back. Viewed from a certain angle, it reveals the French word “MOI“ [meaning “me”, or "myself"]; from another point of view one sees a human figure with its umbilical cord cut. This “MOI“ stands for the collective self, evoking humanity, and the umbilical cord cut represents our liberation from gravitational limits. Inner Telescope is an instrument of observation and poetic reflection, which leads us to rethink our relationship with the world and our position in the Universe. Since the 1980s, I have been theorizing and producing poetry that challenges the limits of gravity, especially with my holopoems—written with light. My Space Poetry manifesto was published in 2007. In 2017, I finally realized the dream I have pursued for more than 30 years: the creation, production and experience of a work directly in outer space. The astronaut's mission was entitled "Proxima" and was coordinated by the European Space Agency (ESA). My work was coordinated by the L'Observatoire de l'Espace, the Culture Lab of the French Space Agency.