ABSTRACT
Locating the lighthouse within evolutionary adaptations and phenomenological engagements with light also reveals why and how it has been consistently valorised in religious and secular worldviews. Though lighthouses retain a critical purpose in beaming light out to sea, many have also become tourist attractions, art galleries and dwellings. And, examined in company with marine organisms and fireflies, humankind can be seen as a light-signalling species which has developed myriad languages of light that are communicated not just through lighthouses but also via their historical and contemporary material relatives. By initiating a series of interdisciplinary conversations about light and lighthouses, Durham University's Institute of Advanced Study hoped to show that, guided by such principles, it is possible to bring multiple disciplinary perspectives into productive and–in this instance–highly enjoyable engagement with each other.
