Dark Futures : the loss of night in the contemporary city?

Dunn, Nicholas Simon (2019) Dark Futures : the loss of night in the contemporary city? Journal of Energy History/Revue d'Histoire de l'Énergie, 1 (2). ISSN 2649-3055

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Abstract

The artificial but widely held binary conceptions of day versus night find themselves condensed in cities where strategies to recalibrate the nocturnal urban landscape are abundant. This transformation requires considerable energies and technologies to facilitate illumination. The night-time city remains poorly understood, requiring new inquiries to examine the tensions and coexistences of light and darkness. This article examines the city of Manchester, United Kingdom, its pioneering history of industrialisation, and subsequent phases of regeneration and gentrification to explore its contemporary urban landscape. It draws on extensive autoethnography of experiences in the city to consider the potential of different lights and darknesses for how we might think more holistically with regard illumination, and the reciprocity between our senses and the urban environment.