Artist James Turrell‘s most famous works are Skyspaces, rooms with an aperture in the ceiling open to the sky. At sunrise and sunset, a hidden strip of LEDs change color in the room, altering the view of the sky. The transformation of light and sky throughout the day is an extraordinary experience.

You can get a lovely quiet sample in this 25-second time-lapse video of one hour of Skyspace.

You can get a more immersive, though virtual, experience via a digital game that allows you to experience an hour of The Color Inside, a Skyspace built in 2013 at the The University of Texas at Austin. Writes Designer Jacopo Colò:

This game is an invitation. An invitation to discover James Turrell’s works around the world, of course, but also an invitation to slow down and sit with something different. For an hour or just for five minutes. I don’t expect anyone to play the game end to end without doing anything else. But run it in a window and keep it there, like a hole in the ceiling that shows the sky above in a very chill evening.

To accompany both, or just your own naked viewing of the night sky, here’s a poem by Emily Dickinson (best read out loud):

The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and You—beside—

The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As Sponges—Buckets—do—

The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—

 

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