Siteworks Capsule Talks: DarkQuiet

This conversation between DarkQuiet artists and special guests Fred Watson, Marnie Ogg, and Cass Lynch builds on a residency project at Bundanon, exploring how we might refocus ways of experiencing the rich complexity and fragility of the world.

We live under a constant barrage of artificial light, and the dark skies that have anchored human life and knowledge for thousands of years are disappearing as city lights encroach. Prominent in the Australian Dark Sky Alliance, Fred Watson and Marnie Ogg expand on the importance of dark sky; for astronomy and society generally and relate progress on the increasing interest in reserving Dark Sky places and limiting light in urban contexts. Writer and researcher, and descendant of the Noongar people of the south coast of WA, Cass Lynch, will consider the up-close impacts on our insect friends.

Videography by Drummerboy Pictures

DarkQuiet

DarkQuiet is a collective exploring principles and practices for new sound/light installations that consider their ecological impacts.

DarkQuiet is Jenny Hector, Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, with producer Erin Milne. Madeleine,Tim and Jenny are leaders in their fields, creating works that integrate the theatrical, social and public in sound/space/light.

Marnie Ogg - Dark Sky Defender, Speaker, Tourism Consultant

With a 30-year history in tourism that includes Ansett, Flight Centre, Australian Pacific Tours, and several years with her own eco-based tourism business, Marnie returned from an astrotourism event in Europe, where she realised how truly special the Australian dark night sky.

Managing Sydney Observatory and Founding the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance has strengthened her commitment to creating inspirational places and experiences for human connection in the world, both day and night.

Fred Watson - Astronomer, Writer, Science Communicator, Illustrator

Fred Watson is Australia’s first Astronomer-at-Large in the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, having worked at both of Britain’s Royal Observatories before joining the Australian Astronomical Observatory as Astronomer-in-Charge in 1995.

Recognised internationally for helping to pioneer the use of fibre optics in astronomy during the 1980s, Fred is best known today for his award-winning radio and TV broadcasts, books, music, dark-sky advocacy and co-hosting the Space Nuts podcast.

Fred has adjunct professorships at Macquarie University and the Universities of New South Wales, Sydney, Western Sydney, Southern Queensland and Wollongong and is a Member of the Order of Australia for service to astronomy, particularly the promotion and popularisation of space science through public outreach.

Cass Lynch - writer & researcher

Cass Lynch is a writer and researcher living in Boorloo/Perth. She has a PhD in Creative Writing that explores Noongar stories that reference the last ice age and the rise in sea level that followed it. She is the co-founder of Woylie Fest, an all-Aboriginal culture-sharing and literature festival, and through the associated Woylie Project she facilitates bringing Noongar stories into print. Her Noongar language haikus, published in Westerly 64.1, won the 2019 Patricia Hackett Prize. She is a descendant of the Noongar people and belongs to the beaches on the south coast of Western Australia.

Commissioned by Bundanon for World Weather Network.

Part of the weather station: Bundanon, NSW - find out more here.