Rethinking Darkness by Dunn Nick;Edensor Tim;

Author:Dunn, Nick;Edensor, Tim;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2021-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

In this chapter, I have illustrated how lightscapes are stimulated as well as how they stimulate tourists at different points during the unfolding of one selected Northern Lights tour in the north of Iceland. Following the tour allows the researcher’s body to become entangled with the tour’s rhythm and partakes in conditioning the ever-changing atmospheres that, in turn, condition the tour as it progresses. The tour started in darkness and was conducted in darkness; the Northern Lights remained hidden, although they were lurking about in the invisibility. Still, the passengers experienced a variety of lightscapes during the two hours that the tour lasted and took an active part in generating them, consciously and unconsciously. At the beginning, we headed off into immense darkness, lost the sense of direction as a grasp of territory that we might have imagined when trying to foresee the tour dissolved and arrhythmia devolved. Some passengers started browsing their phones, whilst others stared out of the windows and into darkness or at the sleet lit by the lights from headlights that swirled around in front of the bus. Low voices broke the silence as some of the passengers swapped words. Shortly after, the guide stepped in and interfered with the rhythm by creating a common ground for the passengers by pointing to the fast-moving clouds in the sky that called forth a variety of grey shades and shadows that were intensified by the light from the hidden moon and stars. Rhythms became synchronised and ever-moving atmospheres continued to condition the ongoing journey, as more creatures emerged. These are creatures of the night that during the day remain concealed by light and take on a different appearance in the altered circumstances provided by darkness, such as the remains of the factory. With the assistance of darkness, moisture, the glare of artificial illumination from cars and houses, the movements of creatures from different temporalities were stirred. As elsewhere, the landscape was animated through the ever-moving, more-than-human lightscapes.

This chapter emphasises the importance of darkness, while focusing on how there is rarely pure light or darkness but rather continuously moving lightscapes that are sensed and felt through tactile experiences. It is, however, important to consider the earthly connections that condition how we are grounded and influence how we are affected by the atmospheres generated by the more-than-human encounters that we are enmeshed within. In the case of Northern Lights tours, we may acknowledge how these atmospheres are shaped by expectations as well as what happens when they are experienced in situ, and how they are further conditioned through the more-than-human co-creation and choreographies that are performed as the tour unfolds. Such co-creation includes heterogeneous elements and figures such as the guide and passengers, forms of transport, weather and the earthly conditions, as well as the material surroundings that enchant the creatures of the night.

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