ABSTRACT
Urban lighting can be understood as a political technology. It is subject to regulatory control, deployed through state legislative authority and managed through tiers of international, national, regional and local policy. On a clear evening the City of London and Canary Wharf dominate the eastern view from Waterloo Bridge. Many things change when the sun goes down. Seemingly immutable surfaces that contain, frame and regulate the city take on very different qualities. Powerful red lamps order the architecture in relation to the capital’s flight paths; the aviator’s gaze is inscribed into the pedestrian’s field of view. The intensity and complexity of street, architectural and feature lighting are combining into stable forms of lit city image. Although seeking to be specific solutions to particular places they are instead merging into a unified (globalised) static set of normalities.
