The Wadden Sea, as one of the largest tidal planes on the planet, ties together sky and mud. At night, this is the darkest area of the Netherlands, with relatively little light pollution. It is exactly in these places where one can strongly sense the rhythms of a tidal region that are governed by interplanetary cycles. Their force of influence extends also into our imagination and culture. What can the dark sky tell us if we listen to the depths of its mysteries?
Together with twelveArtScience students we conducted improvisational research under the night skies of the salt marshes of the Wadden Sea during the darkest week of November 2023. This is not research done alone, but involves local people, local beings, as well as the darkness of the sky and the pitch black mud below our feet. As a collective we shared our experiential findings with local residents in synchronicity with the falling stars of the Leoniden swarms. What a night! And I wonder: what happens if, in our educational systems, we would tune in more with celestial rhythms?
The Night of the Falling Star, ArtScience Interfaculty public evening, Thursday, 16th November, Het Lage Noorden,Marrum, NL. re-imagine-europe – Stars-in-their-eyes
During the research process, my dreams seem to guide me for direction: one said: ‘only write down your direct observations!’ Others sucked me in a black hole; functioning as a portal to travel to other times and other places.
Where are we when we dream?
I kept falling into black holes.
If I fall in a black hole how do I get out of it?
I explored this question by diving into the ideas of Stephen Hawking who first conceived of black holes, and Carlo Rovelli who has written about them, and their opposites – White Holes – more recently. It might be hard to see behind the event horizon of the black hole but in my dream I was positioned on another angle from a far distanced in space: a methodology I borrowed from his book, which I applied in my dream. I saw that white and black tunnels are swirling around each other. This theory possibly builds upon Rovelli’s insights. I wrote him a letter to share the amazing insights of my dream.
Dark Skies with special thanks to: ArtScience students: Lola Brancovich, Lila de Coninck, Jedrzej Eltman, Raphael Diederen, Wouter van den Elzen, Inge Kengen, Inga Hirsch, Bokyoung Kim, Anaïs Lossouarn, Wiggo Mott, Charlotte Roschka, Michelle O’Higgins Theilmann. The birds, the mud, the salt marshes, the stars, the planets in particular: Jupiter, Saturn and Venus, Sophie Dyer and Sasha Engelmann from Open-Weather, Adriana Knouf (scientist/artist), Koen van den Driesche (local astronomer), Harry Veentra (local field-guide), Sandra Jansen and Stephan Valk for welcoming us to Het Lage Noorden, Marrum, Friesland and Sonic Acts 2024.
Dark Skies – and The Art of dreaming presented during Fault Lines: KABK Research Forum 2024 Featuring the KABK Deep Futures Research Group Friday 31 May, 11:00-19:00, KABK Auditorium