Since their beginnings, artificial lighting technologies have been used as a tool by those in power to express their authority and ensure their control of cities. State and commercial hegemony determine urban lighting, which has a substantial spatial, semiotic, emotional, and physiological effect on us. Lighting conditions imposed from the top down inform our bodily experience of the night.
LED technology is revolutionizing artificial public lighting. Nevertheless, critical inquiry about its potential uses is sorely lacking. This research will explore the capacity of collective light interventions to turn public spaces into more inclusive nightscapes. It will focus on community-driven projects where the use of lighting contributes to the production of alternative urban experiences. The research engages methodological issues by asking how lighting tools can potentially contribute to community empowerment. Can lighting actions in public spaces propose other ways of interacting and other ways of experiencing the night?
This paper revolves around critical lighting practices. It shows how the use of light can foster citizen engagement and ignite new nocturnal imaginaries as the perception of the night is reshaped to restore communities’ right to the city. The intention is to bolster critical awareness regarding the use of light and the power underpinning its instrumentalization. This text will also shed light on the effect ephemeral collective light interventions have on public spaces and its perception.