Dark Skies

10 march 2024 – **Sonic Acts** –**The Muddy Muddy Mystery Tour** Moddergat 5222.5055,N,00512.9701,E.by Cocky Eek. In a rapidly changing world, fieldwork is a crucial part of our cultural orientation. It is the practice of making sense between oneself and the landscape. In this field trip, we will visit several places along the Frisian coastline, known for their dark skies and direct exposure to the elements.
Staying with the mud, Cocky Eek will conduct a ‘quick and dirty’, low-tech workshop to create mud listening and sensing devices – a unique opportunity for an in-depth encounter with the saltmarshes of Marrum. Under the guidance of a local mud guide and equipped with our handmade devices, participants will visit the area around the villages of Moddergat and Paezens – to listen in, to, and *with* the tidal landscape.

10 March, Moddergat 5222.5055,N,00512.9701,E. **Muddy Muddy Mystery Tou**r, **Sonic Acts**, foto credit: Carolyn Strauss

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 twelve ArtScience 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?

Dark Skies public events:

Sonic Acts: Muddy Muddy Mystery Tour, 17 jan 2024, Moddergat and Marrum, Nl Sonicacts – The-Muddy-Muddy-Mystery-Tour

The Night of the Falling Star, ArtScience Interfaculty public evening, Thursday, 16th November, Het Lage Noorden,Marrum, NL. Publication: re-imagine-europe – Stars-in-their-eyes

Sterrenstof 33; Soundpiece based on the rotational speed of the planets: Wouter van den Elzen and Rahael Diederen (ArtSciene students) https://podcastluisteren.nl/pod/SterrenStof (from 17 minutes onwards). January 2024

Sonic Sources, KABK Deep Futures Group x Mushroom Radio. 27 Oktober 2023, The Hague, NL. mushroom radio -SonicSources

Faultlines forum: KABK Deep Futures Research Group, 31 may 2024, The Hague, NL. Deep Futures Research Group 2023-2024. brochure: brochure fault-lines-2024.

Faultlines video-presentation: Dark Skies and the Art of Dreaming – Cocky Eek

Look at thus Mud, ArtScience Interfaculty presentation, 29 september 2024, Het Lage Noorden, Marrum

12 November 2023, Saltmarshes, Marrum 53°19’59.2″N 5°46’38.9’E. Here we are, receiving the live radio signals from NOAA-2 passing over in a curved line above our heads from Portugal to Iceland in a duration of 10 minutes. NOAA-2 is a weather satellite, orbiting earth since 1970 and about to die. [piep -peip – piep ]. The workshop **Stars in Their Eyes** conducted by Sophie Dyer and Sacha Engelmann from Open Wheater was hosted by **Sonic Acts** 2024. Photografy Sophie Dyer.

12 November 2023, Saltmarshes, Marrum 53°19’59.2″N 5°46’38.9’E. Photografy Sophie Dyer.

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 2023-2024 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

Excerpt fieldnotes Cocky Eek, 22 September 2023, Westhoek 53.274044, 5.554670.
..

excerpts -Dark Skies — Sept 2024. What happens if we tune in more with the local rhythm’s?

Excerpt from Jinglei Zang’s reflection: “…**Wednesday**: I spent nine hours alone in the tidal dam area, walking at least 15 kilometers. In the morning, I followed the coastline at low tide, crossing rivers and then resting in the grass to observe the cattle. By midday, they were mostly inactive, lying down in the middle of the field. I sat down like them, taking in the environment. Later, I began mimicking their calls, and the cows followed me toward the coast. However, they stopped when the tide reached its peak, aware of the potential dangers of proceeding further. I ventured to the shoreline to witness the high tide on my own and later tried to lead the cows back, but they adhered to their natural rhythms, watching as I walked away..” , .Photo-credit: Jinglei Zhang (BA student – Dark Skies September 2024)

“Beneath the dried cracks, you can find a perfectly round mud-ball. Perhaps it was polished by the sea, the tide, the wind or the people who used to live here. You can find it quickly, or it can take a long time. But it is there, somewhere beneath the cracks.” Text and photo-credit: Jokūbas Vaicekauskas (MA student -Dark Skies September 2024)

Excerpt from Johan Høegh’s reflection: “… my sense of wonder came back when looking at my high-quality renders. The sense of wonder I lost on the second day returned on day three—sitting in front of my computer, looking at the renders I had made. Suddenly, the elements I captured came back to life. Realizing that something out there now has a digital twin. Even though I can never reach the level of detail in my renders that exists in the real thing, the new digital setting and space bring a new perspective of complexity.” Johan Høegh. video **A Walk in Reality** &
**A walk in reality build (only for Mac)** by Johan Høegh

Excerpt from Jedrzej Eltman’s reflection: “……second night, I took a shower before too gain some heat for the rest of the night. The sky is clear. When I lie on my back Cassiopeia Constellation is just straight above me, i don’t need to twist or raise to see it. Once in a while araise myself to see Algol and Capella and Plejades on the right. Once in a while I twist my head to the left too see the Polaris and Big Dipper, or to the right to see Orion belt and Sirius.” Photo-credit Jedrzej Eltman. (BA student – Dark Skies September 2024)

ArtScience Interfaculty course Dark Skies, September 2024 taking place at Het Lage Noorden, Marrum – with Robin Bolle, Grzegorz Gebski, Anna Lora, Jinglei Zhang, Ruben Dijkstal, Jendrik Eltman, Omer van Soldt, Hyun Kim, Ossip Blits, Johan Hoeg, Anne Zarske, Jokubas Vaicekauskas and Ossip Blits