  This is the first paper in a series in which an attempt is made to formulate
a perturbation theory around the the Chern-Simons state of quantum gravity
discovered by Kodama. It is based on an extension of the theory of 't Hooft
Deser and Jackew describing point particles in 3D gravity to four spacetime
dimensions. General covariance now requires the basic excitations to be
extended in one spatial dimension rather than pointlike. As a consequence the
symmetry of the Kodama state, which is the (anti)deSitter symmetry, is realized
'holographically' on a timelike boundary, the generators of this symmetry being
related to quasilocal energy-momenta. As GR induces a Chern-Simons theory on
the boundary, the deSitter symmetry of the vacuum must be q-deformed with the
deformation parameter related to the cosmological constant. It is proposed to
introduce excitations around this vacuum by putting punctures on the boundary
to each of which is associate a vector in some representation of deSitter group
projected to the boundary. By equations of motion those punctures must be
connected by continuous lines of fluxes of an SO(3,1) gauge field. It is also
argued that quasilocal masses and spins of these excitations must satisfy a
relation of Regge type, which may point on a possible relation between
non-perturbative quantum gravity and string theory.
