Story of As Long As The Night Lasts
As Long As The Night Lasts
SHINTARO KONO, 2024
The night quietly begins and slowly comes to an end, which expressed through this lighting piece.
With built-in GPS system, the light automatically turns on when the sun sets anywhere on the Earth, goes off from one side as night falls, and turns off at sunrise.
The wavering light will accompany the rhythm of nature, which is difficult to feel in the city,
as long as the night lasts.
Size: H8.5 x W28 x D7cm (approx. H3.3" x W11" x D2.8")
Material: Acrylic board, aluminium, electronic components
About the Work
During the Edo period in Japan, people used a timekeeping system known as futeijihō, or the temporal hour system, based on the times of sunrise and sunset.
Both daytime and nighttime were divided into six equal parts, and temple bells were rung at the passing of each interval so that people could know the time.
The speed of time varied greatly between summer and winter. A single nighttime interval in summer lasted about 90 minutes, while in winter it could extend to around two hours.
In this way, people lived within a sense of time that moved together with the changing rhythms of nature, using sunrise and sunset as their reference points throughout the seasons.
After the Meiji period, this temporal system was abolished in Japan and replaced by the fixed-hour system still used today. A day came to be organized into an even twenty-four hours. Time became more precise and convenient, but at the same time, the connection between daily life and the rhythms of nature gradually became less visible.
Today, we live within a uniform structure of time. In doing so, we may have become less sensitive than people once were to the changing lengths of days and seasons.
The piece contains an embedded GPS module that measures the latitude and longitude of its location and calculates the local times of sunset and sunrise.
At sunset, all 24 LEDs illuminate. As the night deepens, they gradually turn off from one side. At midnight, exactly half remain lit, and by sunrise, all of the LEDs will turn off.
In Tokyo, Japan, around 35° north latitude and 139° east longitude, sunset is earliest around the winter solstice in December, at approximately 4:30 p.m., and latest around the summer solstice in June, at around 7:00 p.m.
Meanwhile, around March and September, between December and June, the times of sunrise and sunset shift by nearly one minute each day. The seasonal change in temperature arrives roughly two months later.
This piece is an attempt to bring back, through the changing light, the dialogue with nature once embedded in the temporal hour system, while remaining close to contemporary life.
This piece is currently available through made-to-order purchase.
Production begins after your order is placed, and the work will be shipped within 2 to 4 weeks.
You can place your order here.