Abstract

Grounded in the practical problem of light pollution, this paper examines the aesthetic dimensions of urban and natural darkness, and its impact on how we perceive and evaluate nighttime lighting. It is argued that competing notions of the sublime, manifested through artificial illumination and the natural night sky respectively, reinforce a geographical dualism between cities and wilderness. To challenge this spatial differentiation, recent work in urban-focused environmental ethics, as well as environmental aesthetics, are utilized to envision the moral and aesthetic possibilities of a new urban nocturnal sublime. Through articulating the aspirations and constraints of a new urban nocturnal experience, this paper elucidates the axiological dimensions of light pollution, draws attention to nightscapes as a site of importance for urban-focused (environmental) philosophy, and examines the enduring relevance of the sublime for both the design of nighttime illumination and the appreciation of the night sky.

Highlights

  • Cities given, the problem was to light them

  • Not as bright as our current city nights, and perhaps not featuring a pristine, completely unpolluted night sky, but a re-oriented urban nightscape. This may not allow for the experiences referenced in Nordgren’s Milky Way posters (Fig. 2) within downtown cores, but that need not be the final goal for a new urban nocturnal sublime

  • This paper has engaged with the contemporary axiological dimensions of nighttime illumination and darkness, focusing on the geographical dualism reinforced by differing manifestations of the sublime

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Summary

Introduction

The problem was to light them. So begins R.L. Grounded in the practical problem of light pollution, this paper examines the contemporary axiological dimensions of urban and natural darkness. Experiences of urbanized and natural nightscapes—of electric illumination and the starry sky, respectively—evoke similar aesthetic responses, but with different moral connotations. It is argued that a wilderness nightscape has been constituted, where the night sky is accessible and the preservation and protection of darkness is seen as a moral duty These spaces require protection from light-polluting, urbanized nightscapes, which are defined and bounded by artificial illumination. These two distinct nightscapes reinforce perceptions of a nature-culture dichotomy, or what has been called a geographical dualism between cities and wilderness (Light 2001), with troubling implications for urban-focused environmental ethics. The sublime draws attention to the entwinement of aesthetic and moral judgements of contemporary nightscapes

City Nights and the Technological Sublime
Light Pollution and the Astronomical Sublime
The Geographical Dualism of Artificial Lighting and Natural Darkness
Towards a Darker Future
Darkening Skies as Urban Restoration
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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