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sky to ground

How do lighting and surveillance change our perception of what is ‘safe’ in urban environments?

Since the widespread use of gas lamps in cities, artificial light has impacted our understanding of darkness, perception of safety, is compiled from our social, cultural, geographical and historical experience. Schulte-Romer posits that the socio-cultural effects of light cannot be fully separated from its visual and nonvisual effects on our body.[1]

As professional opinions across disciplines vary and are often contradictory, many decisions on lighting in cities by local and regional authorities are still based upon an ongoing lack of evidence of how different types of artificially-illuminated environments increase or decrease criminal behaviour.[2][3] This is based on the fact that many strategies evidence research carried out well-before 2008, often relating to studies from 1970s, when cities were simply a very different socio-cultural experience. Similarly, there is a lack of research on the use of certain types of artificial light at night (ALAN) in terms of technical and social research, which was frequently stated by professionals working in ALAN studies.

“Lighting plays a key role in the prevention of crime, largely through surveillance. Whilst new research demonstrates that there may be little direct correlation between the incidence of crime and the reduction of street lighting, and that turning down lighting can have a positive impact on behaviour, good lighting nonetheless governs people’s perception and provides them with the confidence to use the public realm after dark.” [4]

Perception of safety after dark is complex and very personal. However, in the recent week of conversation stemming from tragic circumstances of abduction and violence, many of the personal experiences seen from thousands of women at present have common threads on protection and boundary-making, one of which is ‘walking in brightly illuminated spaces’. Women are questioning the advice offered presently and historically by those in positions of power over ‘staying in and staying safe.’ There is presently a large response on social media and numerous press stressing that the normalised language and approach needs to shift from the accountability of the vulnerable, to addressing the conditions and behaviours that are shaped by societal and cultural response.

As we transition at speed into ever-changing methods of surveillance, what questions should we be asking about the securitisation of urban spaces?

The original project objective was to use nighttime as a lens to explore notions of safety in relation to terrorism in the city, asking the questions:

  • Can artificial light be manipulated as a deterrent to nighttime activity and how much do local authorities use this in their ‘defensive architecture’ strategies?
  • How could a combination of specific surveillance and ALAN create an imperceptible architecture and orchestrate particular forms of ‘knowing’?
  • How do these forms of ‘knowing’ relate to public perception and ‘imaginary’ of darkness and safety amongst the architectures of the city, and towards what people perceive as ‘substantial’ threats?
  • What kind of politics can be drawn out of a photon?

Covid-19 changed the parameters of the work, restricting field studies and documentation to a limited space of minimal contact. From this, this website exists as a collection of research, writing and local documentation exploring the optical and auditory devices/processes that can be used to analyse the relationship between light and safety - methods of ground-truthing.

  • Can ground-truthing ever produce certainty?
  • What risks, ambiguities and complexities play into our individual experiences of nighttime safety?
  • How can expanded practices of ground-truthing work towards re-spatialising the disparities in human and more-than-human relationships at nighttime?
  • [1] Schulte-Romer, 2019

  • [2] Soper, M, 2015

  • [3] [Steinbach, R et al, 2015] (https://jech.bmj.com/content/69/11/1118)

  • [4] [City of London/Speirs + Major, 2018] (https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/services/streets/road-highways-and-pavements/street-lighting)