The Empire of Lights: a participative photographic project
L'Empire des lumières
This project is a photographic exploration of urban landscapes under the theme of power networks, community and energy waste.
As a sign of our affluent societies, many public street lights remain lit 24 hours a day - they are known as "day-burners" or "burners" - providing no useful service, at a financial and environmental cost. They are paid for by the local council, that is by ratepayers.
This project is an attempt at re-discovering the landscapes we've stopped seeing, re-sharpening our sense of observation and reducing pressure on local councils electricity bills at the same time.
As a sign of our affluent societies, many public street lights remain lit 24 hours a day - they are known as "day-burners" or "burners" - providing no useful service, at a financial and environmental cost. They are paid for by the local council, that is by ratepayers.
This project is an attempt at re-discovering the landscapes we've stopped seeing, re-sharpening our sense of observation and reducing pressure on local councils electricity bills at the same time.
To participate, just send us a photo (or even better, file a NeatStreets report) of your own urban street lights wanderings to:
[email protected]
A curated selection of "burners":
NeatStreets is an app for that
The photos below have been uploaded to NeatStreets using their simple but effective civic app.
The app routes issues reported by any user to the relevant managing authority, and starts a dialogue around the resolution of the issue.
You can report always-on street lights (and a lot of other local issues) with their mobile app:
The app routes issues reported by any user to the relevant managing authority, and starts a dialogue around the resolution of the issue.
You can report always-on street lights (and a lot of other local issues) with their mobile app:
- start a new report
- take the photo or select a photo previously taken from your photo gallery
- in "Details", select category "Street Light" then "Continuously on"
- add a comment if needed
- click on the address to make sure it accurately reflects where you are
- wait a few days to see if this is being fixed!