From Shadow Space to Dark Skies – a Journey From Inner Space to Outer Space

In the twenty-first century, there is a growing gap between cultural understandings of darkness as a frightening and unknown place filled with dread and awe, and the reality of the modern world, where increased light pollution is degrading the night environment. In this article, I explore this tension between darkness as a figurative phenomenon to darkness as an experiential phenomenon. That is to say, the gap between darkness as represented in human knowledge systems against darkness as experienced in the social-material environment.