ABSTRACT
Darkness is my canvas. Not a flat receptor of paint but site-specific and volumetric, the time-space that is night. Drawing upon selective artists and authors, including Tanizaki, DaVinci, Chesterton, Batchelor and Chin, and decades of personal experience as an artist and designer, I will explore the challenges of designing with darkness and light. Mobilizing a well-orchestrated campaign proselytizing our ‘right’ to see stars, some are calling for the darkening of cities. Yet despite such essentialist entreaties, desires for illumination on the grounds of safety, legibility and commerce continue to inform light design. How can we chart a course through these contrasting imperatives? I am guided by the ecological artist, Mel Chin, who claims that ‘to have a pact with nature, we must have a pact with humanity.’ Accordingly, I will argue that best practice needs to take account of economical, technically efficient and aesthetically attractive illumination but not at the expense of the stars, our nocturnal identities or the health of frogs or insects.
