LIGHTNESS & DARKNESS
Lighting can be a form of pedagogical communication; the way a city plans its lighting tells its citizens where to go and what to expect.
A well-lit space appears safer than dark corners.
To light up a park is thus a way of informing people that this is a safe space.
But is it really? Isn’t this a false form of communication?
Safer than crossing the park, with all its dark bushes and trees to hide behind, would be to simply walk around it. Perhaps a more honest way of communicating would then be to keep the park in the dark, in this way letting people know that it is actually not safe at all to be here after sunset.
Amsterdam has two mayors, one for nighttime and one for daytime.
This is because the city is actually very different depending on what time of day it is.
During the day, it is a family-friendly and cozy environment, but after nightfall, a clientele with slightly different inclinations takes over the town, looking for drugs, alcohol, and sex.
Geographically speaking, it is of course the same town, but its character changes depending on the degree of natural light.
Night is a fascinating time as everything looks completely different than during the day. Familiar things seem strange, even threatening.
Places during the day that appear completely normal now become hiding places for monsters. Perhaps this is our emotions way of telling us that daytime is for exploring but during the night, we better stay put in one place, not endangering ourselves or scaring others.
Lately, the use of lights has become a way of exposing architectural treasures for tourists.
Churches, monuments, and castles are all lit up throughout the night.
The effect is beautiful, but disturbs animals, insects and birds that rely on darkness to find their way and to navigate correctly.
Bats, living in belfries on the countryside, wait for darkness to fall before they leave the safety of their homes to go out and find food.
Today, when these kinds of buildings are constantly lit, the bats never dare to leave their homes, and thus end up starving to death.
Lights have become such a normal part of modern world that we take it for granted.
Today, there are lights everywhere we go, and streets and squares are lit electronically even when everyone is asleep.
But does a city always be awake, or could there actually be benefits to signaling to its inhabitants that it’s time to rest and to stay at home?
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world that allows not only light but also darkness, so that both people and animals can follow their natural rythms.
