disappearing darkness

DISAPPEARING DARKNESSKatherine Yaksich Thesis 2013 Jane Pirone

I want to raise awareness for light pollution through an installation that expresses how artificial our world has become.

I want to do this by creating an educa-tional website and a poetic exhibit that creates a nostalgia for the dark. The two pieces should be able to stand alone but should also clearly be part of the same idea.

TYPES OF LIGHT POLLUTION

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

HUMAN EFFECTS

Light TrespassOver Illumination

GlareLight Clutter

Skyglow

Sea TurtlesBirds

Nocturnal AnimalsFrogs

Insects

Circadian RhythmsBreast CancerAstronomers

OLAFUR ELIASSONFor precedents, I studied Olafur Eli-

asson. In this piece in particular, Your Blind Passenger, Eliasson had people

use their senses to get through the piece. It was a commentary on utopia.

These were early prototypes in-cluding experiments, videos, and photographs. I learned that none of these pieces achieved what I was hoping for, so I moved on to designing an experience

The experience was more succesful than any of the other prototypes. People would crawl into a dark box and sit and be reflective for a minute. Then, a bright, disorienting light

would come on and the viewer would sit for another minute. I want to take this experi-ence to a new level and make people crave

the darkness and peace and quiet of nature.

THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE:

NEXT STEPS:

Light pollution existsDarkness is disappearingNature is gonePeople like crawling into small, dark boxes

The next step will be to redesign the experience to make people long for nature. From there I can be-gin to build and create the exhibit.

To go with the experience, there will be an educational website to back it up. This will host more information about light pollution and its effects then will be present at the time of the exhibit. This is so I will not scare people off with environmental issues and hinder their experience of experiencing the dark.