Migratory birds navigate by the stars, moths by the moon and dung beetles according to the Milky Way.<\/p>\n
Countless species, from jasmine to jaguars, have evolved to thrive in darkness. Nightfall is their cue to wake up, hunt, forage, find a mate or flower. For billions of years, the cycle of bright days and dark nights has been among the most fundamental rhythms on Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the Industrial Revolution and our control over artificial light, we\u2019ve broken this rhythm,\u201d said the artist Jan Tichy on a recent afternoon at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University. His current exhibition here, \u201cJan Tichy: Darkness<\/a>\u201d (through July 26), delves into these disruptions.<\/p>\n When Tichy began planning his show, he sought out scientists across the university. Steven Bridges, the museum\u2019s senior curator and director of curatorial affairs, who organized the exhibition, sent out an invitation, which, as Tichy recalls, went something like: \u201cHi M.S.U. community, there\u2019s this artist coming, and he\u2019s interested in light and darkness. Any takers?\u201d The researchers who responded, from an entomologist to a neuroscientist, shaped his approach to darkness, and the art he produced. His presence, in turn, provoked new studies.<\/p>\n Humans are also feeling the effects of a rapidly brightening world. Studies have linked the blue waves that emanate from our smartphones, streetlights and other sources to breast and prostate cancer<\/a>, depression<\/a> and diabetes<\/a>. According to research published in the journal Science Advances<\/a>, in 2016, the Milky Way was no longer visible to more than one-third of the world\u2019s population, including 60 percent of people in Europe and nearly 80 percent in North America. According to a new study<\/a> published in the journal Nature earlier this month, night skies have brightened 16 percent between 2014 and 2022.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we are losing darkness and losing ourselves within that,\u201d said Tichy, standing inside a cavernous gallery he has darkened by covering a large window. \u201cInstallation no. 48 (Darkness)\u201d (2026), a commissioned work created specifically for the space, unfolded around him. Projectors beamed geometric shapes of light onto the walls, where they waxed and waned, flickered on and faded away.<\/p>\n Although the projected forms in Tichy\u2019s work are abstract, some recall natural phenomena. Two circles converging near the ceiling suggest an eclipse. Other moments simulate less primordial events. At one point, three billboard sized projections abruptly illuminate the gallery with the blinding intensity of Jumbotrons.<\/p>\n The Museums Special Section<\/p>\n Tichy (pronounced tee-HEE) is no stranger to darkness. It has been a practical necessity for the Czech-born, Chicago-based artist, whose work includes analog photography, neon sculptures and light projections. But as Tichy developed his commission for the M.S.U. Broad, he became increasingly interested in darkness itself and its vital role in maintaining circadian rhythms. \u201cI think with the work at M.S.U., the darkness is being offered as a resource,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This shift in emphasis stemmed from conversations he had with university scientists as he developed the commissioned work.<\/p>\n The entomologist Amanda Lorenz, for instance, introduced Tichy to the deleterious effects of light on insects. As director of the M.S.U. Bug House, an education center open to students and the public, Lorenz maintains a collection of live scorpions, beetles and tarantulas.<\/p>\n \u201cArtificial light is damaging to insects because it distracts them from what they would normally be doing,\u201d said Lorenz, reaching inside a tank populated by hissing cockroaches the size of madeleines. Moths, for instance, are unsung nocturnal pollinators which, in some environments, are more efficient<\/a> than bees; when they spend their brief lives fluttering around lightbulbs, flowers go unvisited and entire ecosystems suffer. And what threatens insects also imperils their predators, like bats and frogs. \u201cEvery baby bird has to eat bugs as its whole diet,\u201d Lorenz said.<\/p>\n Tichy\u2019s questions about bugs living around the museum prompted Lorenz to lead a student survey of insect biodiversity on the lawns outside the building. This sort of reciprocity is unusual, according to Bridges. \u201cI have found, personally, it to be more rare for an artist to truly influence the work of a scientist,\u201d he said, compared with what he called \u201cone-directional\u201d scenarios in which artists base their work on science.<\/p>\n Some of the bugs the students collected (mostly flies) figure in a new series of photograms and film animation by Tichy. In these works, the insects appear in spectral white silhouette against inky black backgrounds. Both projects are on view in Tichy\u2019s exhibition, alongside some of his older works.<\/p>\n