Project title

The art of dusking: reviving the forgotten practice of watching the world go dark

Research question

How can the forgotten practice of dusking, with its focus on the in-between time—when day shifts into night—help us see the world, and each other, in a whole new light?

Project description

Dusking is a poetic, journalistic reflection on the contemporary relevance of a forgotten ritual once common in the Netherlands: sitting and watching the day turn into night. At its core, this reflection explores the theme of attention.

We often hear about the so-called “attention crisis” in our society. It is often discussed in terms of its effect on the individual. Someone struggles to concentrate because of the constant overload of stimuli in our modern lives, and that becomes a problem because our culture demands continuous performance. And performance requires focused attention.

What’s less often considered is how this lack of attention disconnects us from the physical world and from the natural rhythms we are part of. We are raising generations who can no longer tell a pigeon from a crow, or point out east and west.

Through this project, Marjolijn van Heemstra wants to dig into how an old, everyday ritual can help us redirect our attention outward and re-establish a sense of connection with our surroundings. She explores how twilight can make us aware that the world isn’t just built of facts—but of processes. And how dusking might be a form of practice in noticing gradients.

Selected publications

Preparation of a dusking practice in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, by Anne Kuit.