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night-time citizens

FINDING FREEDOM WHEN TRAVELING

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Lee en español

WOMEN OF THE WORLD

I was listening to Michelle Obama’s podcast recently, and if you have been reading this blog you have probably realized I am a big fan of hers. Michelle Obama’s words brought me back to the women in my life who I have considered to be my mentors, who never had the title of mentor despite they listening, guiding and supporting me, at important moments in my journey. After some reflection about their words and personalities, I realized that the common thing among them was that they were, what I consider, women of the world.

Certainly being a woman of the world is a title they have gained not just because they enjoy travelling for pleasure, but because they also travel for business or learning. For them, the act of travelling is more than relaxation and pretty pictures at lovely spots. In certain ways when they travel they allow themselves to be permeated by other cultures and reflect about themselves. 

Also, they have built their own studios, bringing a new vision to their local ecosystems and with that, they have inspired other young women like me to take control of their careers, make the most of the world and find opportunities to give back a part of themselves to the communities around them.

When I met them, I saw a freedom in their gaze that I haven’t seen before in other women. I noticed that feeling of independence, which I only had felt a hint of, the first time I studied abroad. One of the mentors I am talking about was my first professor of lighting design at UPC in Barcelona, during my studies as a postgraduate student, and later my boss when I did an internship at her studio. Although she was not my first mentor, I met her at a time in my life when I had finally discovered my calling.

MY CALLING

No career or a specific path was imposed upon me, however my context unexpectedly managed to influence me. I had chosen to be an architect inspired by my father who since a young age had loved to do technical drawings and was really talented at it. I remember being delighted by hearing his stories about his tools, how much he took care of them and how he was dreaming about becoming an architect or engineer. Sadly though these dreams never came true because of the struggles he was facing at that moment.  

After I graduated from architecture school, I took a job I had not been expecting. Up until that time, I had continued to let myself get carried away by the “good guidance” my family, professors and close friends offered me to make my major life decisions. However, when I chose lighting design as a career I had no clue about what I would be facing but I was still happy to take the risk. While researching the industry, I read an intriguing article that helped me to make that decision.

I felt inspired by how powerfully the perception of a building changes with light. I read how some people prevented several heritage buildings from being demolished in New York by lighting them up and doing an ephemeral intervention.

That article brought me memories of when I was an exchange student in Buenos Aires and I decided to follow the schedule which my origin University had given to me and not to be “distracted” by a lighting design course I wanted to take but I couldn’t apply to my major later. 

At that time, I didn’t have the courage to follow my intuition and years later I realized that class had been given by a really talented lighting designer Eli Sirlin. When I found that out, I regretted getting carried away by what I believed were my daily obligations and not following my intuition.

THE JOURNEY

After so many signs, I decided to allow my intuition to lead my decisions, and I applied for a postgraduate spot at UPC Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, where I got in and also met my mentor. During my time at UPC, I remember being captivated by my mentor’s way of understanding light, her passion about her projects, her continuous way to challenge us as students, and her studio which was always full of drawings, luminaires and materials for testing. 

Looking back to those days, in my mind remains the image of her carry-on in a spot of her studio close to the door, and my mind wondering where her next destination would be. Her busy schedule and her ability to have everything on time. Her smile after classes when she used to put her helmet on and rode her bike back home. Her good sense of humor and how she found time to share a couple of beers with us after a tough project delivery during my internship. Moments in which she used to share some of her adventures as her car trip around the USA as a deserved closure after her Master studies. And how to forget, her thoughtful presents, some of my first lighting design books which nowadays I keep as my treasure.

I remember being struck by her full sense of self, and extreme confidence. She seemed to move so easily in the world, jumping between German and English with clients then discussing lighting concepts and technical details in Spanish, and finally explaining to us some key points of a lighting competition written in Catalán. I dreamed to be her.

PONDERING ON THE ROAD

Some years later, I met her again. We spoke for some minutes in the coffee shop of a lighting fair and then she invited me to have dinner. After that talk, I realized that she had intuited so much about myself during that short time back in Barcelona, things that took me years to see and many others to accept and internalize. Maybe it was because of her experience, but until now I am not sure of how she had the power to see through me. 

Even today, her words and thoughts keep me reflecting about my path as a professional and as a woman. All those moments had blended together between her classes, the projects in her studio, my classmates and that lovely city which is Barcelona, the first place where I really learnt to see the power and the magic of the light in a conscious way. To see the world with new eyes.

Beyond classes I believe that my learning environment was the city by itself, uncovering its secret spots, places which transformed between day, night and seasons. A city which dressed with light during special celebrations and with shadow in those narrow streets in the old town. A city which has the capacity to constantly amuse travellers and citizens.

NIGHT-TIME TRAVELLER

After reflecting on my journey, I realize how important a sense of freedom through travel has been in my life, both as a professional and as a woman. I am still shy and I feel panic from public speaking, among other fears. But despite all those fears and my tendency to overthink, I have been cultivating a sense of possibility that allows me to dare to do things despite fear; and to know that even in the darkest moment I can still find light in myself.

I have been cultivating a sense of possibility that allows me to dare to do things despite fear. And to know that even in the darkest moment I can still find light in myself.

Going back to the time I spent in Barcelona, there was when I started travelling alone by choice, and also with classmates and friends just chasing the light. That was when I realized I was a Night-time Traveller. I spent my travels observing cities at night, guided by cosy warm lights or joyful colored lighting, finally, enjoying the night in another way. For me, discovering the cities at night has finally given me the freedom I had been looking for so long.

Night-time traveller

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THE NIGHT-TIME AND US

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Lee en español

WOMEN AT NIGHT

Since we are children we associate the ability to learn walking with a sense of freedom. Those early steps around our first year of life are the signals of independence, that power of being able to explore the world around us by ourselves. Walking gives us a sense of freedom that stay with us during our whole life. 

At the beginning of our life, no matter if we are boys or girls we are encouraged to learn to walk through our homes and explore, with certain precautions, the world that opens around us. Then we carry those steps to the outdoor environments where we learn to walk in a less controlled environment, and after that to run, which we can finally do in shared spaces such as parks or squares. 

With the past of the time, that sense of freedom starts to look different because of our gender. As women, we start to hear statements as “you should not walk alone at night outside” “You have to avoid wearing provocative clothing”. Those statements can be more or less extreme between countries as a result of social constructions that translate in norms and boundaries.

A SHARED STORY

Around my youth, I started to be aware of that difference between women and men. In the beginning, I was not sure if that feeling was just my own construction because of my shyness or the fact that I grow up in a catholic school where the norms were very clear about “how a lady should properly behave”, referring to not to give her opinion if this was not asked, not to speak up, not to be so noisy or demanding, and among all those “NOTs”, not to go out outside alone at night.   

But, then I discovered that the fear to the night was a shared feeling. That feeling became recurrent in the comments of close friends, and other women that I met along my journey. And more recently, in the words of other women that even though I do not know in person, I could connect with their feelings when I read their stories in a pilot survey I did, trying to dig more deeply into the roots of that shared feeling. After all, most of us were raised with that fear to the night and in a culture which statements exclude women of enjoying the nighttime and which is prepared to judge us if we dare do it.

Data visualization of the answers to the question: Define in one word the first feeling that comes to your mind, when you explore a city at night

Even women which I deeply admire because of their sense of freedom and empowerment, like Michelle Obama, have spoken about that feeling. In her book Becoming, she wrote “I knew never to walk alone at night” referring to her first steps of freedom walking and finding her own space through Chicago’s city when she was a teenager. In that part of the book, she also talks about that need of avoiding groups of men and their intimidating stares. Steps like so many others that we are supposed to follow in order not to be exposed in the urban night.

AS INVISIBLE AS POSSIBLE

After a while of exploring that shared feeling of fear and my own feelings, I came to the conclusion, that as women we have been trying to be as invisible as possible in the urban night-time. We use this as a sense of self-protection; as a way to remember those behavioural norms that society has imposed upon us, in order to protect us from harassment, an also because we know if we are attacked, society is going to blame us for provoking these situations, this is something we continually see in our context.

I became aware, that the way we move, the speed of our pace, the emotions we put in the urban journeys suddenly became controlled and supervised by external eyes when we are women. And those eyes are prepared to judge us if a misfortune happens to us. With this situation, as women, we become aware that our gender, that social construction, instead of including or integrating us into society, has contributed to limit our interaction with public spaces due to those prejudices.

I became aware, that the way we move, the speed of our pace, the emotions we put in the urban journeys suddenly became controlled and supervised by external eyes when we are women.

So, what happens when that basic signal of freedom seem diminished by cultural patterns and limits the way women explore outdoor environments compared with men? Why should our possibilities of exploring the world should be affected just because we are women? It seems that if we are women we are forced to spend the time indoors when the night begins if we want to feel secure.

FINDING OUR OWN SPACE IN THE NIGHT-TIME

From my own experience, I believe we should not let society determine the way we explore our cities. As women, we belong to the urban night as much as men. We can actively participate in urban construction, not just the physical one, but the urban imaginary. We should not stop ourselves from taking that class we love just because it’s at night, and we are too afraid of walking alone at night. A woman should feel as safe as a man feels. We should not be kept from enjoying that movie, or cultural event at night, for any reason. 

As women, we belong to the urban night as much as men. We can actively participate in urban construction, not just the physical one, but the urban imaginary.

I certainly believe that the experience of travelling alone and being able to enjoy the night in a city abroad when I was 19, in a place where society was not as close-minded as mine gave me the sense of freedom that allowed me to move with more confidence in my 20s. I learned that I could sign up for that creative writing workshop I really wanted to do, that I could go for those drinks out in the bar on my way home even though I was alone and did not know anyone. I was lucky enough to discover those opportunities, which completely opened my sense to new possibilities.

With this, I want to invite you to find your space in the urban night-time. Feel free to choose the night as a moment to improve your educations skills, to take that job you really enjoy or just to have fun. As a society, we should stop blaming women for being attacked or for daring to enjoy the cities at night, and in change promote more inclusive cities with fewer limitations and more opportunities. Girls and women should be encouraged to find their own way, their own place, and feel free to do it at the urban night-time guided by their own light.

Night-time traveller

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If you enjoyed this story, please share this post and help us to add more people to our community. Or leave us a comment with your night-time stories, topics you want us to talk about or share with us your thoughts about the night-time cities

Share your own journey with us #iamanighttimetraveller 

WE ARE ALL NIGHT CITIZENS OF THE WORLD

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Lee en español

FEAR OF NIGHT-TIME

Since I was a little girl, I was taught to fear night. It was that moment of the day when I had to take shelter and find a safe place in which to protect myself. Protect me from what? I still didn’t know. Protecting myself from the night was one of those abstract concepts that adults name but don’t describe. So I spent my childhood nights in private, contained places. It started out at my house, then my relatives’ houses; always with family, never with strangers.

Over the years, society also reinforced that idea to me that, during night-time, girls and women are too exposed and too vulnerable, and according to society, we must avoid getting out at night alone. Those were the statements I grew up with. So, during my youth I always chose to enjoy the nights in cafes, restaurants and finally at clubs with friends. Always with people I knew, never alone and definitely not in a public space.

During night-time, girls and women are too exposed too vulnerable, and according to society, we must avoid getting out at night alone.

For me, enjoying the night in a public space was limited to special moments of celebration, such as fireworks or tours in December seeing how some corners of the city were transformed into illuminated settings, like something out of a postcard. But even in those moments, we were always aware of “the bad things that can happen at night.” Did I enjoy those special moments? Sure, but always in a contained way, with a fast pace because as my relatives used to say “be out so much time at night, it was not good”.

Over time, the temptation of the night that used to intrigue me as a child and which I was spying on from my house windows, ceased to interest me. I assumed that all this transmitted fear was real and that the idea of a night out in the city only belonged to the bars, cafes, restaurants and theaters. And actually that was enough for me, maybe I wasn’t missing anything. I wanted to be a good girl, behave myself and avoid those tricky situations from getting hurt.

RE-FINDING MY CURIOSITY FOR THE NIGHT

After a few years of university and in those moments of uncertainty about the present and the future, I decided to make a change in my routine. I undertook a trip to another country, without even considering that I had never lived alone, much less in another city that was not the one where I was born. My vision was quite naive, but in the end, thanks to that naivety, I started my first trip alone.

In the midst of all the changes that decision brought to my daily routine, the biggest change came at night. Yes, the one I was so afraid of. On my long walks alone, I got lost countless times for not seeing the map with the correct directions and the previously chosen route. I got carried away by my instincts and walked many streets only attracted by the colors of the facades, those local craft shops or those small cafes and pastry shops where you fall in love with the colors of their food. Who has not been carried away by that tourist spirit when finding places so strange, but so curious?

Among all those times that I got lost in the city and in time, when night came my alert instinct to look for a safe place was awakened and I hurried to find the nearest subway station or bus stop. But in those journeys, I began to see how some people enjoyed that moment of change when the sunset began and suddenly they seemed to walk more slowly, calmly, something in their face and their routine changed.

When I returned to feel that curiosity at night that I had put aside years ago, I began to notice how the older people sat on the park benches to tell those past life stories with mischievous smiles like children. Those parks between dim light and shadows, was the ideal setting to tell those mischief. Also, those who were leaving work sat on the terraces to have a coffee to avoid the tumult of rush hour in public transport and to take a break after a busy day. At that moment, I was finding by myself that night was far from being that scary place I was told.

THE MAGIC OF SHARING THE NIGHT WITH STRANGERS

And so little by little, I gave myself the freedom to lose myself more often in the city, to stay until a little later in the parks and to sit on those terraces to see how people enjoyed this space that I used to fear. At that moment I felt safe being away from home, nobody could judge me. In that place, girls and women were freer, so independent. I admired that confidence, that one that I had never felt before in my whole life.

On those nights as a spectator, I found the magic of seeing highly skilled characters, while flaunting their skills to juggle fire. I saw how the faces of the closest spectators lit up with the light emitted by those fire props, while those farther away disappeared into the shadows and only appeared when their applause of admiration was heard. This is how I discovered that the night is also enjoyed with strangers, with shared urban stories.

Not only did the parks change, so did the rest of the city. Historic buildings and the most emblematic ones were delicately illuminated and the others were disappearing into the shadows. It was as if someone had decided what I was allowed to see and what not. The city was different, but not the scary one that I imagined. It was just another side of itself, a little more serene, a little more leisurely. Between the light and the shadow, the city managed to highlight only what it wanted to show and hide what it only allowed us to see during the daytime.

After that experience, I started feeling more confident about travelling and being alone in the city. I do not know how to ride a bike or to drive a car, but I realized that I can walk the cities streets at my own pace and make my own road. So as I did, we should allow ourselves to have the freedom to explore our cities and find our space in the night. 

From this story like many others, Nighttime Traveller was born. This is an initiative that invites us to explore the urban night with different eyes, to get away from the prejudices that lead us avoiding public spaces at night and ultimately, to change the perception of insecurity that makes us walk faster, be defensive and direct our gaze to the ground as we walk through the night. Nighttime Traveller invites us to inhabit the night, to transform the urban spaces that we travel daily and give them a new meaning.

I do not know how to ride a bike or to drive a car, but I realized that I can walk the cities streets at my own pace and make my own road.

Finally, with this first story, I invite you to awaken your curiosity about the new uses that we can give to public space. I hope you get inspired by photos and stories that I will continue sharing about different urban spaces at night. Places in which citizens like us experience the city through tourists eyes, that curious look that we forget with routine. And so, let’s bring to life these places that we avoid at night and begin to experience the night.

Night-time traveller

HELP US GROWING THIS COMMUNITY

If you enjoyed this story, please share this post and help us to add more people to our community. Or leave us a comment with your night-time stories, topics you want us to talk about or share with us your thoughts about the night-time cities

Share your own journey with us #iamanighttimetraveller 

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