Dunn, Nick (2025) Darkling Dialogues : Alternative Narratives for Cities at Night. In: 6th International Conference on Night Studies, 2025-10-09 - 2025-10-10. (Unpublished)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The dominant narratives that concern the urban night are those of bright lights and sensory stimulation. After dark, the city transforms as the identities and boundaries of people and places shift and the routines and rhythms of the daytime are replaced. Yet, around a corner, behind a wall, deep in the pockets of the urban night, alternative stories wait to be told. These are latent and often overlooked since the complexity of their diversity and nuance does not readily conform to the way a city is portrayed. They may seem like the footnotes of grander narratives of the nighttime city, but this paper suggests that by revealing counter-narratives, hidden histories, and alternative voices we might expand and enrich our understanding of urban nights and how to design with them. This paper examines the relationships between stories, spatiality, cities, and imagination. It offers a creative non-fiction account of the city of Manchester, UK, after dark as a speculative mode to give expression to different ways of being in the nighttime city. In doing so, it seeks to inform new pathways for designing urban nights and the role of architecture and darkness towards a more inclusive, just, and biodiverse nocturnal city.