Research Interests

Research Interests, Photography and the spatial dynamics of night

Low voltage orange streetlights bouncing off wet black asphalt, surrounded by breaks of light shining through window blinds. Yellow floodlights contaminating every inch of space, and cold white tunnels scrawled with graffiti and melted plastic. A perception of night that became ingrained in me from growing up in a housing estate in Ballymena County Antrim where, like in many towns and cities across Northern Ireland lighting extends beyond the norms of lighting parks and pathways to create balanced, safe social spaces. In this context it becomes an instrument of social control and surveillance, where darkness is positioned as a space of tactical menace, exile and the unknown. I recall on occasions during the early 1990s lights being switched off, providing cover for police to covertly enter the estate during drug raids, while black spot areas of the estate remained engulfed by powerful light throughout the night. I lived beside the main thoroughfare of the estate making the house an easy target for passing vandals. Frustrated by the exposed position I decided to climb the lamp post next to the property spray-painting the light black. From my window I could see those near but they could not see me, the veil of darkness almost stopping attacks on the house. I found this situation intriguing, prompting a desire to probe these spatial dynamics.