The LightClock below measures time according to the changing luminosity and colour of the sky over the day and night and throughout the year. Daily and annual variations in natural light choreograph the behaviour and life cycle events of most life on earth. Meanwhile, artificial light at night adds noise to the natural cycle of night and day and can disrupt both human and non-human biologies and behaviours. The LightClock makes these cycles of natural and artificial light legible.
The light sensors that drive this particular LightClock are currently in Glasson Dock in Lancaster. Sensors in Leighton Moss will be reinstated soon after some maintenance. The clock traces out the changing ambient light as a helix of coloured marks. This clock is optimised for light at night and the daytime colour (bluish white) and dusk and dawn (purple) are currently false colours so as to place the emphasis on nighttime variations. Each turn of the spiral corresponds to the changing light over a period of 24 hours; there are 60 turns showing a period of just over two lunar months. The helix is shown in perspective and thus appears as a spiral, with the present moment at the head of the outer ring (at the 12 o’clock position) and the past spiraling anticlockwise towards the centre. Cumulatively, this locates the viewer in the daily and seasonal variations of light and dark that act as a master clock for life on earth.
Sensing the night skies above a Cumbrian area of outstanding natural beauty