Dark Futures : When the Lights Go Down

Dunn, Nick (2025) Dark Futures : When the Lights Go Down. Zero Books, London. ISBN 9781789043617

Abstract

Light is everywhere, often uninvited as a by-product of our contemporary lives. Darkness meanwhile appears unwanted, yet is essential to our wellbeing, other species, and our planet. Banished through artificial illumination and conceptually problematic, darkness is fast becoming a sought-after luxury by those that can afford it. We currently use more resources than can be sustained and need to fundamentally rethink our relationship with darkness. What might happen when the lights go down? Dark Futures responds to these concerns, sketching out different futures for our lives, our cities, and our planet. By exploring the ecological impact of pursuing an everlasting sun through artificial illumination upon many species, including us, we will encounter alternatives to how we live now. How can we think of different futures that engage with the possibilities of darkness? Since the Enlightenment, Western culture has been intrinsically bound with ideas regarding illumination and a reductive worldview that does not account for the diverse, situated, and relational qualities of darkness around the world. In the context of many urban centres, darkness is resisted, connected as it is to negative cultural and historical associations alongside contemporary perspectives of fear and crime. When we consider what futures are possible or plausible they tend to direct us to visions of either a shiny, frictionless world which is light and bright, or at the other end of the spectrum they are the fearsome, shadowy dystopias. This book reclaims darkness to think through alternative futures which are neither environmentally catastrophic nor technologically evangelical. Instead, Dark Futures offers a third way, where we reconsider ourselves, our world, and other species we share it with differently. It proposes a new philosophy in which darkness is embraced as an emancipatory space for positive thought and creative expression. By revealing fresh ideologies that can empower sustainable and ethical relationships with our ecologies and our technologies, this book sets out a new vision for the futures of collective life.