Description

Night is a time of transformation. Under cover of darkness, the familiar becomes strange and exotic.

This is particularly true of the urban landscape, where nocturnal invisibility paradoxically allows the city’s true nature to be revealed.

The strangeness of the urban night was recently amplified during the covid pandemic: as humans stayed at home, the natural world came to the fore. Foxes roamed at ease in the deserted city streets after dark. Cork after dark seemed almost apocalyptic.

Night has long been a contested space in urban history. Questions of public order, criminality and safety have traditionally been associated with the city after sundown.

But the last few years have witnessed a growing awareness of the nocturnal experience in the city. The urban nights of today are concerned with questions of sustainability and inclusivity.

Groups such as Dark Sky Ireland seek to highlight these questions.

Night’s economic value, its role in urban regeneration and gentrification, and the disappearance of beloved cultural and entertainment venues have drawn attention to urban nightlife.

This is evidenced by the recent emergence in Ireland of the Give Us The Night campaign group and the appointment last year of Fiona Collins as Night Time Economy Advisor to Cork City Council.

There is also more awareness of night as a time of vulnerability: Irish policymakers are increasingly preoccupied by the challenges of nocturnal public safety, while social activist movements are highlighting the experience of precarious nightworkers.

Enter ‘Dark Futures, Night Spaces’, a nocturnal experience which aims to reflect on life after dark and what the nights of tomorrow might look like.