Peo­ple across the ages have looked up at the night sky and seen sto­ries, fables and myths in the stars. Inspired by music, this activ­i­ty invites par­tic­i­pants of all ages to cre­ate their own con­stel­la­tions and tell their own sto­ries of the night sky.

Mate­ri­als:

White cof­fee fil­ters (3 per star chart)
Black per­ma­nent marker
Col­ored wash­able mark­ers (no black and brown)
Spray bot­tle (with water)
Pencil

Instruc­tions for mak­ing an imag­i­nary star chart:

Lis­ten to a piece of music from Dark Sky Pre­serve, an album and book by Ian Fer­ri­er, Louise Camp­bell and Sarah Beth Goncar­o­va that explores the ways in which we con­nect and dis­con­nect from our­selves and oth­ers in our search for our place in the universe.

Step 1:

On a sur­face that can get wet, flat­ten three cof­fee fil­ters on top of each oth­er. Draw dots on the top cof­fee fil­ter using black per­ma­nent mark­er. The dots can be in a ran­dom pat­tern and of dif­fer­ent sizes, or in the form of a famil­iar con­stel­la­tion. The effect will be of a star chart.

Step 2:

Draw abstract shapes and lines in and around the dots using a vari­ety of col­ored wash­able mark­ers. Colours can touch and overlap.

Step 3:

Hold­ing the spray bot­tle one foot away from the cof­fee fil­ters, spray the top cof­fee fil­ter with a light mist until the colours bleed into one another.

Tip – too much water sprayed too close to the cof­fee fil­ters wash­es out the ink. Spray light­ly once or twice, then watch the ink bleed before decid­ing if more water is needed.

Step 4:

Peel the cof­fee fil­ters apart, and place on a flat sur­face to dry.

Step 5:

Each cof­fee fil­ter rep­re­sents a unique con­stel­la­tion, with the black dots as stars and the colours as auro­ra bore­alis. As you lis­ten to the music, what do you see in your night sky? Is there an ani­mal, a bird, a per­son, or per­haps a myth­i­cal crea­ture? What is it doing? Is it hold­ing an object? What is its name? What sto­ry does it have to tell?

Once the cof­fee fil­ters are dry, use the dots and colours as a guide to sketch a dif­fer­ent con­stel­la­tion on each cof­fee fil­ter using a pen­cil. Trace the pen­cil lines with a per­ma­nent marker.

Option­al:

Many musi­cians have made music inspired by the cos­mos. Lis­ten to music of your choice and make more cof­fee fil­ter con­stel­la­tions. Place the result­ing cof­fee fil­ter con­stel­la­tions in rela­tion to each oth­er to form your own ver­sion of a night sky.

To go fur­ther and cre­ate your own music inspired by the night sky, con­tact: mlouisecampbell@gmail.com