MEGA CONSTELLATION
Comprising hundreds to millions of satellites.
The Mega Constellation exists after dark as a visual archive exploring the relationship that the western world has with night. In a contemporary world filled with artificial light, an unhealthy relationship with darkness has developed.
An investigation into this ever-decreasing detachment from nocturnal light, this body of work was created under the many dark skies of the south west of England.
Culturally, we are unacquainted with the natural night, so this body of work seeks to resolve ways to rekindle our relationship with it, while asking us to question how, and why, we lost it.
The Mega Constellation - Short Film
The night sky has become monopolised by human technologies that have slowly shrouded the earth in illuminance. Even in the most rural places, our view of space is obscured. A new proposal by SpaceX to turn the night sky into a constellation of AI databases, takes the issue far beyond seeing fewer stars. It has the potential to transform the natural night sky, accelerate climate destruction and cause fatalities on earth.
The Mega Constellation was born from my discontent. Greed is visible in the night sky, a place that I look to escape the struggles of this world. It presents the night sky as it was, is and will be in the future. When we see these frightening visuals they may seem like a distant concept, but once the scale of the SpaceX proposal is introduced, we are confronted with our complicity. In this future, careless AI use will directly pollute the night sky.
Through the perspectives of amateur astronomers and dark sky conservationists, The Mega Constellation illuminates an issue caused by many but known by few.
*11 minutes runtime, 4K, Climate / Astronomy / Science, Sound Design by Fin Corrigan
