Our collaboration began in Chicago, home to 175,000 sodium vapor street lamps each one doing its part to change the night sky from black to orange. Accustomed to this sickly orange glow particular to Chicago’s night, we were surprised after a trip to Denmark revealed an alternative to urban night lighting. It was possible to light a city in a more economical and less intrusive manner. But what would happen if there were no lights at night? We wrote to the city of Copenhagen to ask if we could turn off all their municipal lights. We also began looking to see where others might be thinking about this around the world.

The city of Copenhagen declined to have its plug pulled, but we enjoyed this opportunity to interject our idea for disrupting the “natural” functioning of the city.

Recently, we gave a talk about our research into efforts to reduce light pollution and attempts at turning off city lights. We handed out altered flashlights - or Universe Generators - to the audience and encouraged them to make an artificial night sky with us. We had trouble completing this task because the street lamps were trespassing into the room where the talk was given. After the talk, we made a Universe Generator Bouquet so that a user may repeat the artificial night sky effect anywhere she may choose, as it becomes harder and harder to see the stars.

Here are instructions for making this simple device for your own pleasure.