particles, waves, pyreflies:
enter the realm of speculative light ecologies

The Realm

Speculative light ecology (SLE) is a term that artist YP Yuanpu Wang created as a framework for imagining post-light pollution futures. It can also be referred to as "light ecology from parallel worlds."

SLE is practice of worldbuilding and constructing a realm of parallel timelines and possibilities.

YP Yuanpu Wang's practice investigates speculative light ecologies as a method for reimagining human-light relationships beyond extractive paradigms. Building on academic research into light pollution, he creates digital, spatial and light-based works that visualize light as autonomous living systems.

His current work extends from his master's research on 'light as lifeforce' - moving from critical analysis of light pollution to speculative visualization of how light might exist as living ecology in otherworldly environments.

The Practice

Process

Re-sensitize

Receive vision. Sensitize and re-liven your senses. Enhance the ability to receive light. Seek light from within.

Re-sensitize

Receive vision. Sensitize and re-liven your senses. Enhance the ability to receive light. Seek light from within.

Re-wild

Expand imagination. Visualize the merging of analog and digital light. Swim in the hybridity

Worldbuilding

Use photons and pixels as collaborators for worldbuilding

Transmit

Sending and sharing light to the external world in the form of artworks, writing, experiences and educational workshops

The Lore

(Worldbuilding Elements)

Within this archive, you'll find field notes from speculative light ecology. These entries are elements of worldbuilding. They document phenomena observed through natural, digital, inner-body, hybrid light worlds — fragments of a larger ecology where light exists not only as a utility but also as a living system.

Pyreflies
light memory particles
From Final Fantasy X, Pyreflies are a energy unit that forms life. They typically have an iridescent appearance. First documented in the digital realm of Spira, pyreflies are the universe's way of remembering light. When photons complete their journey—absorbed by matter or scattered into void—they don't vanish. They transform into pyreflies: luminous memory particles that drift between dimensions. In our world, you might glimpse them in the afterglow of sunset, those moments when light seems to linger impossibly. They cluster near sites of profound beauty or loss, drawn to emotional resonance. Each pyrefly carries fragments of its journey: the warmth of the star that birthed it, the colors it wore while passing through atmospheres, the shadows it cast.
photons
the smallest light beings
Each photon carries a decision made at the birth of a star. Neither purely particle nor purely wave, they exist in a state of perpetual choosing—collapsing into form only when witnessed, otherwise flowing as pure possibility.
pixels
caged light domesticated
Pixels are light's compromise with modernity—wild photons agreeing to temporary domestication in exchange for purpose. Each pixel contains millions of photons cycling through rapid incarnations: red, green, blue, darkness, repeat. They've learned to paint entire worlds through this constraint. Unlike their free-ranging cousins, pixels live in rigid communities, arranged in perfect grids. Yet within these boundaries, they achieve something remarkable: collective consciousness. A single pixel means nothing, but together they dream images into being. They've learned to lie beautifully, showing us faces that aren't there, places that don't exist, light that never fell.

particles, waves, pyreflies: enter the realm of speculative light ecologies

particles, waves, pyreflies: enter the realm of speculative light ecologies

The Realm

The Practice

Process

The Lore

particles, waves, pyreflies:
enter the realm of speculative light ecologies

particles, waves, pyreflies:
enter the realm of speculative light ecologies