The night sky at Times Square, one of the brightest sites on earth, is filmed during the darkest day of the month. The images are juxtaposed with a series of short stories related to the conceptions of darkness and light in our times, narrated by a voice over in a news telegram manner. The stories are edited versions based on stories told by people Katja Aglert encountered during her reserach on light pollution. Below is excerpts from the short stories told in the video.

‘Nighttime takes place simultaneously all over the globe in a Planetarium. The earth is transformed into a dark ball with lighter parts spread over it’s surface. It reminds her of the constellations. Perhaps, light by light, we are creating a camouflage dress for night time in the star packed cosmos.

During a memorial service in a large city, thousands of birds are drawn to the two blue rays of light pointing up into the sky.The birds cannot exit the light and die in mass from exhaustion.The scenario is repeated once a year.

In an architectural firm, a light designer realizes she needs to give form to darkness in order to make her light designs visible. She thinks of a quote she once heard, ”darkness is to space what silence is to sound i.e the interval’.

In a European capital, a French artist creates what is said to be the worlds largest disco ball. It’s thousands of mirrors throw light over the city at night.The purpose is to simulate a starry sky. The earth at night is sometimes referred to as a ‘disco ball’.