More than Darkness Preservation

The Importance of the Dark, Star-Filled Skies in Urban Areas

in Nature and Culture
Author:
Yee-Man LamHong Kong Shue Yan University, Hong Kong ymlam@hksyu.edu

Search for other papers by Yee-Man Lam in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMedClose
View More View Less
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2020.150304
Keywords:
ANT theory; Bruno Latour; city; darkness; light; natureculture; star
Restricted access
USD  $22.00
Click here to view the full Terms and Conditions

All currencies in US Dollar

PayPal Logo

Abstract

Enveloped in artificial light, many urban dwellers have never experienced real darkness. Seeing this as a loss, scholars and organizations have initiated discussions on light and darkness and advocated the preservation of the dark skies. This article aims to further this study by emphasizing the importance of the stars. Instead of studying lights, stars, and darkness ethnographically, the article examines the ideas of stars and darkness in Thierry Cohen's photographs and two of Vincent van Gogh's paintings. This article will suggest that the dark, star-filled skies represented in van Gogh's paintings provide a visual blueprint of what the article calls the “star-lit cities,” which goes beyond a simple preservation of darkness, and may be significant in driving vital changes in combating the current environmental crises.

Contributor Notes

Lam Yee-Man obtained her PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research is centered on environmental ethics, language, and culture. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Shue Yan University. E-mail: ymlam@hksyu.edu

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Nature and Culture

Cover Nature and Culture
Article Category:
Research Article
Page Count:
22
Keywords:
ANT theory; Bruno Latour; city; darkness; light; natureculture; star
Print Publication Date:
01 Dec 2020
Online Publication Date:
01 Dec 2020
Copyright:
© Berghahn Books 2020

  • Abram, David. 1996. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-than-human World. New York: Pantheon Books.

  • Baldwin, Peter. 2012. In the Watches of the Night. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

  • Bixler, Robert, and Myron Floyd. 1997. “Nature is Scary, Disgusting, and Uncomfortable.” Environment and Behavior 29: 443–467.

  • Bluhm, Andreas, and Louise Lippincott. 2000. Light! The Industrial Age 1750–1900: Art & Science, Technology & Society. New York: Thames & Hudson.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Bowers, Brian. 1998. Lengthening the Day: A History of Lighting Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Branch, Michael. 2008. “Ladder to the Pleiades.” In Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, ed. Paul Bogard, 74–84. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Buell, Lawrence. 2005. The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub.

  • Campion, Nicholas. 2012. Astrology and Cosmology in the World's Religions. New York: New York University Press.

  • Clark, Timothy. 2015. Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept. London: Bloomsbury.

  • Cronon, William. 1995. Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

  • Danziger Gallery. 2013. “Biography, Thierry Cohen.” Danziger Gallery Exhibitions. http://www.danzigergallery.com/artists/thierry-cohen/12 (accessed 6 July 2020).

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Davis, Nicola. 2016. “Milky Way No Longer Visible to One Third of Humanity, Light Pollution Atlas Shows.” The Guardian, 10 June. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/10/milky-way-no-longer-visible-to-one-third-of-humanity-light-pollution.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Deblieu, Jan. 2008. “Ode to Jeff Cobb.” In Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, ed. Paul Bogard, 49–51. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • del Solar, Diana. 2020. “Lessons from the Dark: How the Night Can Help Us Cope with Crisis.” International Dark-Sky Association Official Website. 30 March. https://www.darksky.org/lessons-from-the-dark-how-the-night-can-help-us-cope-with-crisis/.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Ebbensgaard, Casper Laing. 2020. “Standardised Difference: Challenging Uniform Lighting through Standards and Regulation.” Urban Studies 57 (9): 1957–1976.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Edensor, Tim. 2013. “Reconnecting with Darkness: Gloomy Landscapes, Lightless Places.” Social & Cultural Geography 14 (4): 446–465.

  • Edensor, Tim. 2015. “The Gloomy City: Rethinking the Relationship between Light and Dark.” Urban Studies 52 (3): 422–438.

  • Edensor, Tim. 2017. From Light to Dark. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

  • Ekirch, Roger. 2005. At Day's Close: Night in Times Past. New York: W. W. Norton.

  • Frezza, Bill. 2014. “Lights out for Earth Hour.” Forbes. 28 March. https://www.forbes.com/sites/billfrezza/2014/03/28/lights-out-for-earth-hour/#49c9dd7e7ec0.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Garrard, Greg. 2004. Ecocriticism. London: Routledge.

  • Haraway, Donna. 1991. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.

  • Haraway, Donna. 2003. The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press.

  • Heise, Ursula K. 2008. Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global. New York: Oxford University Press.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • IDA. 2020a. “Outdoor Lighting.” International Dark-Sky Association Official Website. https://www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/ (accessed 4 July 2020)

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • IDA. 2020b. “Night Sky Heritage.” International Dark-Sky Association Official Website. https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/night-sky-heritage/ (accessed 4 July 2020)

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • IDA. 2020c. “Lighting, Crime and Safety.” International Dark-Sky Association Official Website. https://www.darksky.org/the-life-changing-magic-of-dark-skies/ (accessed 4 July 2020)

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • ILE. 2005. “Guidance Notes for the Reduction of Obtrusive Light” issued by the Institution of Lighting Engineers. https://britastro.org/dark-skies/pdfs/ile.pdf. (accessed 13 September 2020)

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Jakle, John. 2001. City Lights: Illuminating the American Night. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • Kohák, Erazim. 1984. The Embers and the Stars: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Moral Sense of Nature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Koslofsky, Craig. 2011. Evening's Empire: A History of the Night in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Kumar, Ankit. 2015. “Cultures of Lights.” Geoforum 65: 59–68.

  • Kumar, Ankit. 2018. “Justice and Politics in Energy Access for Education, Livelihoods and Health: How Socio-cultural Processes Mediate the Winners and Losers.” Energy Research and Social Science 40: 33–13.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Kumar, Ankit, and Robert Shaw. 2019. “Transforming Rural Light and Dark under Planetary Urbanisation: Comparing Ordinary Countrysides in India and the UK.” Trans Inst Br Geogr 45: 155–167.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Latour, Bruno. 1988. The Pasteurization of France, trans. Alan Sheridan and John Law. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Latour, Bruno. 1993. We Have Never Been Modern. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Latour, Bruno. 2004. Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy, trans. Catherine Porter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Latour, Bruno. 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-network-theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  • Latour, Bruno. 2010. “Steps toward the Writing of a Compositionist Manifesto.” New Literary History 41: 471–490.

  • Latour, Bruno. 2015. “Waiting for Gaia: Composing the Common World through Arts and Politics.” In What is Cosmopolitical Design? Design, Nature and the Built Environment, ed. Albena Yaneva and Alejandro Zaera-Polo. Farnham: Ashgate.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lockitch, Keith. 2009. “The Real Meaning of Earth Hour.” Objectivism and Today's Issues, The Ayn Rand Institute. 23 March. https://ari.aynrand.org/issues/science-and-industrialization/environmental-issues/The-Real-Meaning-of-Earth-Hour.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Luginbuhl, Christian. 2008. “Coda: What the Solution Would Look Like.” In Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, ed. Paul Bogard, 199–208. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Lyytimäki, Jari. 2013. “Nature's Nocturnal Services: Light Pollution as a Non-Recognised Challenge for Ecosystem Services Research and Management.” Ecosystem Services 3: e44–e48.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Maile-Petty, Margaret. 2010. “‘Edge of Danger’: Electric Light and the Negotiation of Public and Private Domestic Space in Philip Johnson's Glass and Guest Houses.” Interiors: Design, Architecture and Culture 1: 197–217.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Marshall, George. 2009. “Earth Hour: Turning out the Lights Plays into the Hands of Our Critics.” The Guardian. 27 March.

  • Moore, Kathleen. 2008. “The Gifts of Darkness.” In Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, ed. Paul Bogard, 11–14. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  • Naess, Arne. 1989. Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of an Ecosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Orion, Rae. 2007. Astrology for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: For Dummies, A Wiley Brand.

  • Packer, Craig, Alexandra Swanson, Dennis Ikanda, and Hadas Kushnir. 2011. “Fear of Darkness, the Full Moon and the Nocturnal Ecology of African Lions.” PLoS One 6: e22285.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Penprase, Bryan. 2011. The Power of Stars: How Celestial Observations Have Shaped Our Civilization. New York: Springer.

  • Perry, Mark J. 2016. “Coming Soon: Earth Hour—An Annual Event Celebrating Ignorance, Poverty, Backwardness and Energy Self-flagellation.” Aeideas, 13 March. http://www.aei.org/publication/coming-soon-earth-hour-an-annual-event-celebrating-ignorance-poverty-backwardness-and-energy-self-flagellation/.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Petrusich, Amanda. 2016. “Fear of the Light: Why We Need Darkness.” The Guardian, 23 August. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/23/why-we-need-darkness-light-pollution-stars.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Plumwood, Val. 2002. Environmental Culture: The Ecological Crisis of Reason. London: Routledge.

  • Pritchard, Sara B. 2017. “The Trouble with Darkness: NASA's Suomi Satellite Images of Earth at Night.” Environmental History 22: 312–330.

  • Raymo, Chet. 2008. “Why the Night Sky is Dark.” In Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, ed. Paul Bogard, 52–60. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Rudy, Alan. 2005. “On ANT and Relational Materialisms.” Capitalism Nature Socialism 16 (4): 109–150.

  • Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. 1988. Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century, trans. Angela Davies. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Schlör, Joachim. 1998. Nights in the Big City. London: Reaktion.

  • Schroer, Sibylle, and Franz Hölker. 2017. “Impact of Lighting on Flora and Fauna.” In Handbook of Advanced Lighting Technology, ed. Robert Karlicek, Ching Cherng Sun, Georges Zissis, and Ruiqing Ma, 957–989. Cham: Springer International Publishing AG.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Sharkey, Joe. 2008. “Helping the Stars Take Back the Night.” New York Times. 30 August. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/business/31essay.html.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Star, Susan Leigh. 1991. “Power, Technologies and the Phenomenology of Conventions: On Being Allergic to Onions.” In A Sociology of Monsters? Essays on Power, Technology and Domination, ed. John Law, 26–56. London: Routledge.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Swimme, Brian. 1996. The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story. New York: Orbis Books.

  • Tallmadge, John. 2008. “Night Vision.” In Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark, ed. Paul Bogard, 135–143. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • van Langevelde, Frank, Jody A. Ettema, Maurice Donners, Michiel Wallisdevries. 2011. “Effect of Spectral Composition of Artificial Light on the Attraction of Moths.” Biological Conservation 144: 2274–2281.

    • Crossref
    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • Vogel, Steven. 2015. Thinking like a Mall: Environmental Philosophy after the End of Nature. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

  • Warren, Karen. 2000. Ecofeminist Philosophy: A Western Perspective on What It Is and Why It Matters. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

  • Weston, Anthony. 1994. Back to Earth: Tomorrow's Environmentalism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

  • Willis, Roy, and Patrick Curry. 2004. Astrology, Science and Culture: Pulling Down the Moon. Oxford: Berg.

  • WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). 2020. “Our Mission” https://www.earthhour.org/our-mission. (accessed 13 September 2020).

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 1168 90 6
Full Text Views 65 19 0
PDF Downloads 84 13 0