Nachtwerk

2025
Graduation
Astrophotography
Physical Computing
Interactive Media
Research
Writing
Bookmaking
IC5070, Pelican Nebula. 13.41 hours of integration time (161 x 5’ exposures). Photographed over 4 nights.

This project forms part of a broader look into light pollution and the shifting conditions of darkness. The night sky, once constant and widely accessible, is increasingly obscured by artificial illumination. Nachtwerk—literally 'night-work’—is a term I employ to describe how creative, scientific, and existential practices now engage with darkness under altered conditions: scarcity, interference, mediation. The work unfolds across archaeoastronomical research, environmental analysis, conceptual development, and physical making.

At its centre is an astrophotograph I captured of a distant deep-sky space object: using my Newtonian telescope, guided tracking, and stacked long exposures taken with a cooled astronomy camera. The Nachtwerk frame presents Nacht in both its pre- and post-light pollution forms, depending on the viewer's proximity. As presence increases, the image loses clarity: a motorised mechanism rotates a polarising film sheet, rendering the sky invisible. What remains is a blackened field; a night without stars. Simulating the clear-cut yet mostly unacknowledged effects of light pollution on the night sky.

Nachtwerk will be exhibited at the Media Art Friesland Young Masters Exhibition in January–February 2026.

105 raw and uncalibrated 5-minute exposures of M101, Pinwheel Galaxy. Photographed over 3 nights. The streaks of light seen in individual frames are the result of passing satellites.
M45, Pleiades Open Star Cluster. 8.33 hours of integration time (100 x 5’ exposures). Photographed over 3 nights.
The final structure involves two layers of polarising film, one mounted statically, the other rotated via a NEMA17 stepper motor triggered by an ultrasonic range sensor. The assembly is controlled by an Arduino Uno and powered through a motor driver circuit. As the viewer approaches, the Arduino receives a proximity signal and activates the motor. The film rotates ninety degrees. My image is then rendered invisible, as no light can pass through the crossed polarisers.
The final structure involves two layers of polarising film, one mounted statically, the other rotated via a NEMA17 stepper motor triggered by an ultrasonic range sensor. The assembly is controlled by an Arduino Uno and powered through a motor driver circuit. As the viewer approaches, the Arduino receives a proximity signal and activates the motor. The film rotates ninety degrees. My image is then rendered invisible, as no light can pass through the crossed polarisers.