Booklet and an installation about lights importance, its effects on health and issues around light pollution. Showcased as a result of Designers in Residence exhibiton in July 22 at Emma Pforzheim. Part of the result of my research into light pollution is the ‘Guide for Navigating Urban Lightscape. Citizen Right for Light Knowledge’ booklet, which is seen below. Selected photos by W. Reinhardt

Illuminated Stories
Designers in residence
Emma Kreativzentrum
Pforzheim

Spring 2022



The exhbition main part was the light installation using graphics and
storytelling to engage the audience on the topic of light pollution.


The participants were also invited to take part of a city-wide trail where
they could find various posters with messages that question the human use of artificial light.
The visitors could use a map, found at the exhibition, to find the posters and specific lights.
The posters would also engage the local community members who might not visit the exhibition.
Each light was selected for its night-time light polluting properties and had a
QR code that showed the light in the nighttime.



See more on dedicated and constantly evolving Instagram page about this project @light_escaped

One day event filled with moth breakfast, art workshops, talks and evening light installation “In-visible Moth Spells”.

The event’s aim was to educate and tell stories about the importance of moths and pollinators. Moth numbers are declining in the UK and Europe on an unprecedented scale. For this, we need to plant, learn and think together with these wonderful beings in order to care for them and their habitats.


In collaboration with The Butterfly Conservation and Friends of the Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park. Photos taken by Chris O’Donovan.


Moth Fest
Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park
London

Aug 2022


Moth Garden workshop
The participants were invited to take part of various workshops and activities.

Cyanotype printing workshop



All photos taken on the day by Chris O’Donovan
Shared conjunctions - Mutuality in the Biosphere - is a set of experimental workshops and a supportive temporary exhibition. Participants were invited to reconnect with the biosphere and encourage care for nature and other-than-human species. The moth can act as a metaphor and as a reflective tool and aid in healing human society and systems.

In collaboration with and thanks to Collective Matter. The event and workshop was run alongside and in co-operation with the the artist Nirit Ben-Meir who works with moss.

Mutuality in the Biosphere
Workshop
Contemporary Sculpture Garden Fulmer
2021



The participants learned about the different blooms and petals that moths like and pollinate.

The making process. The participants were encouraged to use any materials available to them in order to imagine new speculative or existing blooms for the moths.


Participants were invited to join the workshop session over the course of an afternoon,
working with moths and storytelling. As a result, we created a speculative moth garden.



There was also a small exhibition of moth poems alongside the workshop for participants to engage with and get inspired by.
Photos by Nirit Ben-Meir

Through interactive sculptures situated in urban space, I invite the audience to explore the wonderful world of moths, wildflowers, hidden patterns and ranges of light.
Each sculpture presents an unseen hidden aspect of moths. For example, moths see ultraviolet and polarized light
which is invisible to humans, so there are specific sculptures that show these traits.
The work acts as a portal into the more-than-human world of insects and moths, in which light becomes material and urban space its playground.


In-visible Moth Spells
Speculative project
IED XD
MA RCA
2021




The 1:100 models of the Urban Playground. Below is the seating areas where chance accounters with moths might happen.

The red light and moth spell megaphone sculptures were built 1:1 scale.


Hand blown glass sphere, aluminium tube and steel base

Steel sculpture with aluminium tube

Making of; design and creative process

In-visible Moth Spells is an installation which explores the mutual interests, shared concerns and interconnectedness of moths, humans and other species. The installation examines how light pollution, the changing urban space and dwindling natural resources affect a range species including our own. Invisible Moth Spells creates a space for moths and people to meet, being it either red electromagnetic spectrum, interactive urban playground or spoken enchanting moth spells. The installation is accompanied by a booklet that gives further information about the project and moths.


WIP 2021

Invisible Moth Spells
IED XD
MA RCA


During the installation the audience is bathed in red enchanting light whilst listening to moth spells
During the installation the audience is bathed in red enchanting light whilst listening to moth spells

The installation addresses our connection to other species, urban light pollution and the urgency caused by mass extinction


In the red light spectrum all ordinary foliage becomes enchanted by the depths between shadow and light


The space becoems a place for reflection and encouraging care for moths

The red light installation is an invitation for the audience to experience red colour and light whilst listening to moth spells. It's a multisensory experience that takes place in the evening at moth time. Because moths don't see the red colour spectrum, the space becomes a place where both the human and the moth might meet.

Through storytelling and moth spells, this piece aims to bring attention and encourage care for moths. Moths are important pollinators and often overlooked or have a bad reputation, despite being as enchanting and wonderful as butterflies. The installation aims to cast a spell on the audience in order to save the moths.

The piece questions anthropocentric urban light use and the widely used limited strong white colour spectrum that negatively affects moth and other nocturnal species populations.

The piece consists of one central light sculpture and six floor mats, ambient music, surrounding Night Scented Stock plants that open at moth time and spoken moth spells.



The red light installation is accompanied by an illustrated fictional booklet that introduces the invisible dimension, contains written moth spells and tells a story of the last moth. The project's visual representation is guided by moths' colour and light perception and human created urban tiled grid patterns. The project's use of grids as a part of the visual language represents the human desire to control and organize the natural world.

I would like to express my gratitude to Zoë Randle from the Butterfly Conservation for helping to collect and spread the word about moth spells. Also, a big thank you to all the spell authors Steve Palin, Anna-Maria Amato, Lisa Hawkins, Philip Burton and Roy Leverton.




2023