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Television Constellation:
Dorothy Schultz, 2005



For this project, I wanted to create a site-specific installation that only exists in the celestial universe. To do so, I contacted a company that sells unnamed stars. I then gave the company the exact coordinates for six unnamed stars I wanted to name and own. The company then sent me certificates for each star with the coordinates I provided for each star, what I named each star, and a guarantee that each star is copyrighted under the United States government.

I chose these six unnamed stars to create my own constellation of a television set. I created this constellation to conflict with the other existing constellations that were once worshipped as gods and goddesses. To remark upon what we as a civilization worship and believe in now as opposed to what the heavens once meant to civilizations in ages past.

I also made a video of my constellation being observed in a planetarium to further express this point. Through the creation of my constellation as well as the planetarium video, I wanted to comment upon our need in this current age to name and claim everything. For, even though I have attached the name "Television" to a grouping of stars, I can never truly own those stars, those stars will continue to shine long after I am gone.