THE INTERNATIONAL
COSMONAUT
The International Cosmonaut, 2014 Digital video, 13.30 min
describes and questions the various rituals undertaken by cosmonauts before venturing into the cosmos. The positively-minded, confident male voice is undercut by the questioning, aggrieved female speaker.Superstitiously excluded from ships and considered to cause doom when boarded, the femaleattempts to break open a path towards new spaces through questioning the legitimacy and ownership of knowledge. As the cosmonauts on the screen try to form a new way to live removed from the solidity of earth, the low-tech, distorted and pixelated imagery, underlines the disconnect between what is technically possible and where this leaves us as humans. As image and text merge, a view onto the mass of individuals is formed, each travelling in their own separate vessel. In so doing, Barnas ushers us to set off into the unknowable that rests between us.
A
The International Cosmonaut blends two video clips found online of a male and femalecosmonaut performing daily rituals – everyday activities abstracted through their floating inouter space. A dialogue of two computerized voices is overlaid, which