Physical
Wavelength and time stay fixed while measured irradiance controls height, brightness, and point scale.
02 / 2026Environmental Data / Computation / Ecology
ALAN
Artificial Light At Night
An interactive spectral space moving between physical measurement, receptor contribution, and explicitly interpretive perception.- Site
- Philadelphia · single-point night measurement
- Media
- Spectral data · Three.js · interactive 3D space
- Status
- Ongoing research · full film forthcoming
LIVE 3D SPECTRUM
Switch among Physical, Contribution, and Interpretive. Carolina sphinx is preselected for the moving contribution view.
How can artificial light at night be read across measurement and species response without overstating what the data can prove?
ALAN begins with absolute downwelling spectral irradiance recorded through the night. The project keeps wavelength, irradiance, and time inside a shared scientific frame, then introduces receptor response as a second reading rather than a replacement for the measurement. An interpretive mode extends those relationships into narrative space while keeping its evidentiary limits visible.
01 / THREE READINGS
One dataset changes meaning without changing its source.
The modes form a deliberate sequence: first inspect the recorded field, then read receptor-weighted contribution, then enter an interpretive spatial proposition.
Contribution
Each receptor becomes an independent S(t,λ) × Rk(λ) layer; the gray field preserves the physical measurement.
Interpretive
A deterministic narrative cloud makes perceptual difference spatially legible without claiming that particle position was measured.
02 / CAROLINA SPHINX
A moving camera turns receptor contribution into an embodied viewpoint.
Carolina sphinx (Manduca sexta) uses a smooth flight loop through the spectral field. Its UV, blue, and green receptor channels remain separate, while the camera moves continuously around their contribution layers. The motion can be paused and automatically stops when reduced motion is requested.
UV357 nm
→BLUE450 nm
→GREEN520 nm
↻CAMERASmooth flight loop
03 / EVIDENCE BOUNDARY
The visualization states where measurement ends.
Scientific and interpretive views share a visual language, but they do not make the same claim. The interface keeps that distinction readable at every stage.
Single site
The scene represents one Philadelphia measurement location, not a map of urban light distribution.
Separate channels
Receptor responses remain independent and are not collapsed into a single score of animal vision.
Visible interpretation
Every non-measured spatial move is labeled so evidence and imagination remain distinguishable.