Scared, Bothered and Bewildered

Originally ran in Point of View blog on metropolismag.com, November 15, 2012


The recent hurricane-induced blackout plunged us into a chaotic and unpredictable environment. It was, at an emotional level, frightening, bewildering, and incredibly stressful. Indoors, it created inconvenience (Where are my clothes? Where are the kids’ toys? Where are the kids?), danger (Where are my pills? How do I manage eighteen flights of stairs in the dark?), and the disruption of habitual activities that focus our evenings.

By Lynn Saville

By Lynn Saville

Outdoors, the looming darkness escalated anxiety. We feared stumbling, bumping into walls, falling into who-knows-what on the street. We suffered a loss of orientation. We feared strangers. And then there was the loss of what I call “glow”. It is the social experience of light: I see you, you see me, look at everyone around us. “Glow” provides comfort and ease as we go about our nighttime routines amid the delights and enchantments a city offers, abuzz and alive after dark.

When a street lighting system goes down, we may not be able to replace each element, but we can look for useful and imaginative responses that might ease some of our very real ‘functional’ fears, and bring back some of the social dimensions of light. We might consider the blackout as a time machine transporting us back to a Dark Age before we were so dependent on technologies that we can’t personally control.  We forget that, for all but a recent moment in human history, we have, as a species, lived without a state-supplied artificial light system. Yet at night we maneuvered around our homes, negotiated stairs, went outside and navigated pathways. We traveled across counties, indeed, entire countries, and explored all the continents available to explore, using the technologies we had at hand, harvesting the potential of starlight, the Milky Way, and the moon.

 
Illustration by Charlie Dumais
 

We need to mine this Dark Age technology, not just because another blackout might occur, but because it helps us to imagine other less electric alternatives for a future in which we may well want to use less light. So here are a few simple principles gleaned from a review of pre-industrial cutting edge technology.

“White has a tendency to make things visible,” according to painter Robert Ryman.  Our ancestors used white chalk and paint to mark the sides of pathways. They painted stones by the edge of the water to denote the danger line. White-washed tree bases acted as sign posts; piles of chalk caught the moonlight and Milky Way and amplified the effect of hand-held lanterns.

 
Piles of chalky soil glowed in the moonlight and served as wayfinders.

Piles of chalky soil glowed in the moonlight and served as wayfinders.

 

The project seemed straightforward: illuminate the steps to make them more visible, and feature their aesthetic qualities. But the local police pointed out that darkness at the top of the stairs concealed gang members waiting to accost anyone climbing up. To avoid leading residents into danger, we needed to put a light at the top of the stairs, to help secure people’s actual physical safety.

Public lighting can also act as a kind of social treatment for our diffuse anxiety and dread. This is by no means trivial. In fact, it’s one of lighting’s most important functions.

We live in a complex and bewildering world. We are constantly exposed to reports of violent and alarming attacks that—however far removed from our time and place—can leave us shaken and fearful. We feel threatened even when we cannot see the threat. In my experience, this feeling of anxiety can precipitate a demand for more light.

A few years ago, a university, where a young woman was assaulted on campus, asked my advice. With students and parents clamoring for “more light!” I was taken aback to learn that the attack happened in a dorm room, after a date. No amount of campus lighting would be able to help her or anyone in this kind of situation. The real task was to add lighting that would help assuage the heightened anxiety women now experienced walking on campus at night. Typical security lighting, with its harsh glare, would actually escalate feelings of apprehension. Instead, the light needed to engender pleasant feelings.

As crime rates drop in many urban areas, I’m increasingly asked to replace existing security fixtures with lighting that is bright enough for safety but also attractive and enchanting.

We painted stones at water's edge to catch stray light, so we could see boundaries.

We painted stones at water's edge to catch stray light, so we could see boundaries.

Tree trunks painted white became road markers.

Tree trunks painted white became road markers.

Nowadays we don’t have to mix chalk and lime; we can use new highly reflective paints, indoors, to call attention to entryways, stair edges, and sills. Outdoors, these same reflecting paints, or a cutting edge version containing phosphorous, can mark curbs, curb cuts, manholes and vertical elements such as lamp- and sign posts. We can apply shiny paints to the undersides of passageways and bridges.

Every bike should be painted in reflective paint (some already are). While we need to increase light in the biking environment, it is better placed on the cyclist (in wearable LED strings, or clearly visible clothing) and at key intersections, rather than trying to develop a new bicycle lighting system.

Beacons mounted high up as signaling devices have historically been fundamental for orientation and safety. Contemporary solar-powered beacon lights, using low-wattage, high-output LEDs, may be added to the streetscape and to street lamps themselves. Though not a replacement for electric lights, they can have a forceful presence when other light sources are inactive or on low settings to save on power consumption.

This year on Halloween, costumed children carried illuminated pumpkins and sported wings implanted with LEDs. These small lights traveling along with them provided enchantment and relaxation for all of us who trooped alongside, undaunted by the blackout. Our differing experiences of the night — those who were fearful on darkened streets, vs. those enjoying the magical atmosphere conjured by the trick-or-treaters, raised the question: Why aren’t we all carrying lanterns?

Somewhere along the historical way adult Americans stopped using lanterns and switched to flashlights.

Early lanterns were hollowed-out turnips illuminated with a drop of burning oil.

Early lanterns were hollowed-out turnips illuminated with a drop of burning oil.

Flashlights have their uses; they are great for preventing stumbling on a mountain path, and help us find keys in the dark. But as a tool for social life, flashlights are no replacement for lanterns: no “glow,” no ambiance, no warmth. A flashlight lets me see you, but you can’t see me. It works as a policing strategy, but we need lanterns to create a social environment. Lanterns’ soft balls of light (LED driven, solar or battery powered) held in the hand, raised on a pole, hung over a doorway or strung in multiples across a street, capture faces and illuminate the carriers in groups of two or three or fifty at a time. They create the spaces for us to see each other when we really need to. And a social environment — one that “glows” and enchants —is the best antidote to fear.

White paint, reflective surfaces, beacons and lanterns: Small lessons from the time machine that create ease of movement in the dark may just illuminate our thinking of a new urban system that uses less light without sacrificing utility or delight.

Illustrations by Charlie Dumais