Right To The Night NI Science Festival, Girdwood Community Hub

Right To The Night is an ongoing project addressing the impact of light pollution in Belfast and was part of the NI Science Festival in Girdwood Community Centre, North Belfast. The event, an exhibition, screening and talk brought together artists, astronomers and environmentalists to raise awareness of light pollution in the city and build communal activism about who has a right to the night sky. This is part of a longer campaign to set up an advocacy group to raise awareness and campaign through artistic means.

An immersive film mapping a year of views of the night sky was projected on the ceiling of a dome kindly supplied and installed by W5. The dome sat in the hall along with a range of related sculptural objects and 2 sets of drawings laid out on tables.

The animation imagery came from the set of 24 drawings of the night sky that were laid out on tables in the exhibition. The other set of drawings focus on key terminology on light pollution from a glossary produced by DarkSky International.

The film invited the audience to stargaze by following a 12 month hand drawn star almanac, representing stars and planets that should be visible in the northern hemisphere, with views looking north and south for each month, but are not due to light pollution. Soundtrack by guineapig with thanks to TONN Recordings.

Visitors were able to drop in and out through the course of the day to lie on the star sculptures and experience the animation in the dome. The screening dome was surrounded by display boards/tables with related drawings and sculptures.