Magenetic Light

What I proposing to do

The project is aimed to explore these questions: What does darkness bring to our subjectivity? What will happen if our bodys fuse into darkness? How can we discover a unusual perspective of the world in dark?

My goal is to explore how capitalism, as a cause of the light pollution, impact the living conditions of both creatures and humans, and then urge people to reflect on how their lives and subjects are separated from the nature.

Why is it important

I wanted to do this topic because the logic of capitalism reduces things to objects, rather than agents with fluidity and complexity; It makes nature opposite to humans and society. We ignore that non-human subjectivity and our civilization are intertwined, resulting in a lack of holistic awareness and ecological disaster. 

In this project, artificial light act as a metaphor for the impact of capitalism on society and humans. When staying in the dark, the sense of object and subject weakens, so we can feel that our boundaries dissolve and integrate with our environment. Through resist the influence of over-illumination, we can temporarily escape from a utilitarian system into an entangled world.

What technique I will use

I will first collect information about how insects such as moths, are affected by light pollution. Then I will both consult professionals and do field surveys to obtain more details of how animals are influenced by light pollution. Finally, I will organize the research outcomes into multiple stories, which will be displayed as sound in an app. When the audience is playing these stories, their location will be retrieved and the stories will change according to the light pollution levels in their location.

NASA Earth Observatory and NOAA National Geophysical Data Center

Academic Publications

When Species Meet – Donna J. Haraway (to see in what aspect species are entangled with us)

The Three Ecologies – Felix Guattari (to find out a logic to awake new subjectivities)

Hyperobjects : Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World – Timothy Morton (a macro perspective to view our relationship with nature)

Phantasmal Media: An Approach to Imagination, Computation, and Expression – D. Fox Harrell (as a method to design an expressive prototype based on digital platform)

The Natural History of Moths – Mark Young (to learn basic knowledge of moth and its habits)

The impact of artificial light at night on nocturnal insects: A review and synthesis – Avalon C. S. Owens & Sara M. Lewis (to learn how the artificial light impacts on insects)

Creative Works

Atmospheres of Breathing – Anne Duk Hee Jordan (refer to its concept of creating a symbiotic relationship via breathing)

The Body Garden – Fred Erik & Pleun van Dijk (refer to its concept of transform human’s destructive power to constructive power)

The Eye of The Other – MAEID (refer to its concept of how to see a normal things through another species eyes)

Interference – Daria Jelonek (refer to its methods of how to present light pollution and air pollution through light interaction installation)

Nam-Gut – Jenna Sutela (refer to its methods of creating a “alien” language by decoding the activities of bacterials)

RadianceScape – h0nh1m (refer to its methods of using visual and audio performance to create an immersive environment and make the invisible radiation perceivable)