Why are cities only beautiful at night?
“There clearly is an uncanny alchemy between dark representations and the urban experience, registered in the realm of images composed by photography, art, cinema, and architecture. For here it is that, as James Donald suggests, the familiar turns unfamiliar, the city of planning and order gives way to the unsettling influence of dark mysteries and memories. [..] portraits ranging from urban anxiety and nihilism to utopian desire, from scenes of dislocation and disposession to “warped spaces” in which the urban uncanny appears as the nightmarish crisis of the human. [..] a shadow always hung over the modernist halo. Inequity and oppression punctuated the drama of freedom on the street. The experience of immersion in the crowd produced feelings of enstrangement and routinization, and the gathering of the multitude could easily become part of the spectacle of mass society that capitalism staged. The rhythm of daily urban life might suggest a symphony, but it also spelled the boredom of routinization. The awesome promise of technology and planned futures was also terrifying. One way in which modernism expressed this terror was through the image of urban dystopia. Its dark visions of mass society forged by capitalism and technology, however, did not necessarily mean a forthright rejection of the modern metropolis but a critique of the betrayal of its utopian promise. The dystopic form functioned as a critical discourse that embraced urban modernity rather than reject it.”
Gyan Prakash: Imagining the Modern City, Darkly.
In: Noir Urbanisms. Dystopic Images of the Modern City (2010).
Night is the time when the mind runs wild, when ones fears take on new dimensions. Doesn’t matter whether we’re living 10,000 years ago with little or no technology or now in mid-Manhattan, it’s when our deeper fears assert themselves more freely.
View the world through a lens as above and the world can be anything you want it to be. Maybe an appealing word picture to some, but what does it add up to?
This is a very interesting point. Definitely something I need to reflect more upon.
architecture & beauty is a very deep topic. if u are interested check a lecture/discussion by yael reisner on the topic
I will have to look into it, thanks!
I Love The City at Night… It’s one of My Favorite things… I use it a lot in My Writing… I’ve always been Very Drawn to New York, and Tokyo… But any City at Night can be Amazing… New Orleans was Incredible… But even when I used to Visit Arizona during the Summer (Crazy time to be in Arizona, Lol), I used to Love Going Out at night.
DarkJade-
There definitely is something magical about the city at night. And I’ve never quite been able to figure out what about the city does makes it so incredible
Part of it probably has to do with The Large Black Forms, against a Dark Sky… And The Light Cast from all of it… Just think about How High the Lights are, and they’re all around you… It’s like a Blend of Shadows and Lights… Pretty Foreboding, but Cool… Like a Blend of “Fairie Fire”, and “Industrial” Structures… Quite a Contrast… Very Intriguing… And The Air is Cooler, and Throw a Full Moon in there, Pretty Incredible.
DarkJade-
Yes, there you go, that’s probably it!
Reblogged this on place, space & the city and commented:
no ones wants high density development in their street, or even their town… but we will all pay big bucks for city views from our houses…