A Demon that Slips into Your Telescope While You’re Dead Tired and Blocks the Light

A Demon that Slips into Your Telescope While You’re Dead Tired and Blocks the Light (2020) is one in a trilogy of multimedia projects (Material, 2016-23). Reflecting on how scientists and technologists impact our understanding of the world, this body of work reveals the social constructs and systems of power that shape fields of “objective” knowledge through the contemplation of phenomena at the edge of human perception. The film comprises interviews with experts in astrobiology, astrophysics, and sociocultural anthropology alongside aerial images from NASA’s archives and original scenes dramatizing a speculative fiction by Janani Balasubramanian.