night sky sensorium ritual
night sky sensorium ritual
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a communal dark-sky night walk and sensorium ritual conducted with other artists in residence at bundanon, 2025
method/practice/medium: sensorium ritual incorporating these elements for all the senses: walking at night deprived of artificial light
"Earlier this year I was in residence at Bundanon, on Dharawal and Dhurga country, undertaking a research arts project I called Nocturnal Kinship which centred on my affinity with other nocturnal creatures. I sent these pages to the other artists and writers in residence one afternoon at the end of our time together. I extended an open invitation to perform this score with me in an amphitheatre up in the bush that night, to be reached walking together in the dark with as little artificial illumination as possible."
Drawn from my article unfurling/night sky for Garland Magazine.
All the elements of the Unfurling/Night Sky ritual made their way with us up the mountain to the flat rock in a clearing in which we gathered: the magpie calls, the tea, the incense, the recited texts by Ross and Vanessa, concluding with the simple action of lying together on our backs, attuning to the night sky
All the elements of the Unfurling/Night Sky ritual made their way with us up the mountain to the flat rock in a clearing in which we gathered: the magpie calls, the tea, the incense, the recited texts by Ross and Vanessa, concluding with the simple action of lying together on our backs, attuning to the night sky
Unfurling has exceeded its original purpose and it is no longer “about” Ross. Rather, it is a shape put around each participant’s experience of the immensity of feeling that is grief, reflected in the palpable immensity of the heavens above our heads.
Unfurling has exceeded its original purpose and it is no longer “about” Ross. Rather, it is a shape put around each participant’s experience of the immensity of feeling that is grief, reflected in the palpable immensity of the heavens above our heads.
That evening shared with those artists and writers is crystalline in all of our memories, a transitioning ritual as some participants were leaving Bundanon and others just beginning to embark on their residency.
That evening shared with those artists and writers is crystalline in all of our memories, a transitioning ritual as some participants were leaving Bundanon and others just beginning to embark on their residency.
“Lie flat on your back on this cleared ground and gaze at the sky orbing above. Stay supine like that until you feel the vast heavens pulling you upwards.
“Lie flat on your back on this cleared ground and gaze at the sky orbing above. Stay supine like that until you feel the vast heavens pulling you upwards.
Enjoy the odd sense that you could hurtle out into the immeasurable light."
Enjoy the odd sense that you could hurtle out into the immeasurable light."
Ross Gibson
Ross Gibson
Photo credits: Kathryn Bird, 2025
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