Midnight Sun

Every year during the months of June to August, Finland’s northern region of Lapland bathes in 24 hours of endless sunlight. This phenomenon, known as the “midnight sun,” has a quality that is different from dusk or dawn, but is somewhere in-between. It continues to attract people as something that is quiet, mystical, and out of the ordinary. For the people of Finland, who are blessed with four different seasons, this midnight sun serves as a basis for their life and deeply affects Finnish culture which, while endowed with rich expressions, also cherishes quietness.

This work is an interactive web installation that extracts the beauty of the midnight sun. In order to create room for users to project themselves into the beautiful, poetic world caused by this natural phenomenon, the project is composed of a minimal number of elements using only the sky, horizon, sun, and moon. This project was a limited release during the summer season. Actual positions of the sun and the moon were derived through calculations to reflect how they are actually seen from Lapland, and Lapland’s ever-shifting sky-scape is reflected interactively within the website. Using webcams to shift visual perspectives, the project captures the shifting skies. With the sound of wood crackling in an open fire, users are able to virtually experience a lifestyle of spending time under Lapland’s midnight sun.