Darkness in 589 - Opening event

Join us for the opening of Darkness in 589, a collaborative research project by Peter Swanton, Prita Tina Yeganeh, and Georgia Hayward.

In partnership with the Multi-Arts Pavilion, mima and the Australian Network for Art in Technology (ANAT), the exhibition explores how stories connected to the sky are more than mythology — they are teachings and oral maps written in the language of deep time.

For hundreds of thousands of years, darkness has been a source of knowledge — a calendar, a compass, a living archive. Today, over eighty percent of people worldwide live under skies polluted by light. This exhibition asks what is lost when darkness itself becomes endangered.

Enjoy light refreshments and snacks as you celebrate the 2026 residency and connect with fellow art lovers.

About the project:

The ANAT (Australian Network for Art in Technology) + MAP mima Artist Residency pairs an artist with a scientist to explore the intersection of art, technology, and research. Through this program, artists engage with scientific methodologies, while scientists are encouraged to explore the experimental and speculative possibilities of artistic practice. The residency culminates in the creation of new work for MAP mima’s immersive 360-degree projection cube and the development of innovative cross-disciplinary dialogues.

About the team

Peter Swanton is a Gamilaraay astrophysicist, Indigenous Research Associate with Australian National University (ANU) and an Executive Director of the Australasian Dark Sky Alliance.

Georgia Hayward is a Mardigan and Anglo-Celtic artist, curator and writer whose practice examines colonial power across social, spatial and digital forms, fostering more place-responsive ways of relating.

Prita Tina Yeganeh is a multidisciplinary artist and facilitator whose practice spans community engagement, installation and moving image, drawing on her Iranian heritage and environmental engineering background to explore land politics, migration, identity and health.