"These moons float in miasmal space. Indeed, they seem suspended in some unhealthy medium quite unlike the cold vacuum of outer space. Of course, this is also nostalgic. Until the early 20th century, scientists believed there was a medium in space called ether."
-Robert Boyd, The Great God Pan Is Dead
The genesis of artist Ted Kincaid's Possible Moons series came from a challenge he made to himself in the studio, while staring at the concrete floor. Noticing how the inconsistencies in the concrete - pits, grooves, and stains - seem to take on a sort of embodiment of lunar landscape embodiment, Kincaid began by turning a scanner directly over on the studio floor and scanning the surface in an extremely high resolution. He also used a flashlight to illuminate the pits at an angle, photographing them so that they resembled craters and canyons. He then began the long process of altering, distorting, and combining this material, cobbling together textured spheres, and floating them in an almost liquid atmosphere. At first, the challenge was to create a manufactured moon as indistinguishable from our own as any documentary photograph. However, this self-imposed constraint was broadened to the concept of "Possible Moons." The influence of early astronomical photography, as well as the early filmmaking masterpiece, "Le Voyage dans la Lune" (1902) by Georges Méliès, is apparent.