Night; explorations through dualities and narratives

Do we always think of night through our daily spaces and experiences, or have we learnt to think in such a way? When it comes to thinking of night, mostly, we dwell on and contemplate through our expectations, wants, reservations, and judgements that are based on our lives during the daytime - and the related discussions are formed over these assumptions. Where we willingly reside or which places we avoid, and what we do or refrain from doing are part of a larger whole. However, since a uniform experience and understanding of night and nighttime living does not exist; how do our encounters, and their determinants, show themselves to us? In order to decipher these relations and connections, of which the different realities and situations are formed, we first have to tackle the concept of "duality". So it is needed for dualities, especially day-night and authority-individual, to be one of the basic concepts of this work, that form the very frame the situations are being discussed in. Dualities form ties between two distinct situations, and by allowing us to think one another accordingly, they help form a plane of references. They define certain realities, routes; can change sides over time; may force us to take a stance. But the effects of the dualities are limited when they are alone - they can only refer to two distinct situations. All the other definitions, attributes, qualities that come attached to them are only thought with and through them thanks to their relationship with narratives. Narratives and dualities form each other; they grow stronger, change together – and they possess the ability to affect us because of this. One of the things we need to keep in mind as we think about dualities and narratives is how they are presented to us. This is how the Authority (or the order) and the plane on which the individual stands mutually is formed; civilization, manners, traditions, habits, are all included in this. However, this does not remain a one-sided relationship. Because it is the narratives that target the bad, unproductive, unqualified sides of the dualities, according to the scheme that the order provides; they produce and sustain themselves through these. These narratives encounter and confront the individual, they collide with them, thus producing other realities; and they go through changes as they are being experienced. When we attempt to study our experience in the city as individuals, the need to resort to these dualities and narratives presents itself. Because our everyday experiences in the city, and the places we pass through and spend time in, are not isolated of these elements. The authority basically determines the criteria to which the places, circumstances, groups, are judged; by labelling some as, for instance "bad" or "unproductive", and form our cluster of experiences. Throughout this study, I aimed to discuss both sides of these dualities, and their grey areas, through the narratives of authority and the individual. By doing so, I was able to create a map of the relationship between space and experience, and what kind of distinct situations they could manifest. The dualities mentioned are grouped as; darkness-light, dangerous-safe, desolate-crowded, noise-silence, being asleep-being awake. Through different chapters I dwelled on their meanings, manifestations, possibilities, on different contexts considering time, place, and circumstances, over night. These are, for this study, considered as characteristics that influence on our nighttime experience in the city. Through each pair, we are cast into different situations. These qualities – dualities- all have a say in our nighttime experince regarding their changing characters, their ability to change our understanding of places, and their ability to affect/shape/change our experiences. Because of this, not only the situations they give birth to at nighttime are discussed, but glimpses of their nature outside the nightly context were also necessarry. For instance, being alone at daytime, in the woods may have a distinct feel of desolation – but how does it differ from the experience of desolateness in a poorly lit and silent back alley at night? In order to get a better grasp on the latter, and the duality as a whole, we need to better understand the former. Main points of these duality chapters are marked by several other dualities, according to their potentials. For instance, through concepts such as uncanny and sublime; darkness, desolation, silence modify the boundaries between the object and subject. Different pairings of concepts, dualities, and changes, are discussed through these dualities. But it is not possible to come to a clear conclusion in a study such as this one. Thus, a mapping that marks the points of reference of this study and these concepts, is needed. The mapping(s) have been present throughout the study, in order to better understand the night in all its complexity. This study is formed over the template that these mappings provided, and it had not been a linear process, for these maps were used as a tool to superpose and juxtapose different realities and circumstances that change according to their contexts. Thus, to both discuss the study itself, and the outcomes of it, the final section(discussions) features the maps and sections of the final map. The final map is produced by taking fragments from the thesis itself and placing them over the very map that helped forming the structure of this study. The sections drawn are from particular places that form the five main points of discussion. The sections have a written part, and a collage part. The fragmented nature of the map may be shown in written format, but in order to better visualize them as the different fragments of realities as they are, the technique of collage was needed; because of what they represent in spatiotemporal context. These fragments form a whole(the map), but the collages of sections have the possibility to open up different discussions of their individuality in this whole. Through these sections, a critique of the process, and what the fragments represent within the sections are discussed, but this part should not be read isolated from the body of the study that came before; because it is not a part to find answers, but to expand the discussions of the former chapter, as well as the study itself.