Horizons, Dimensions and Atmospheres
Throughout history, the night has been a threshold: a horizon where new possibilities emerge, where sensory and affective intensities amplify, and where urban and social forms acquire different shapes. In contemporary contexts, these horizons multiply, they stretch across cities illuminated by cultural events, across informal and precarious territories, across digital and planetary infrastructures, and across communities negotiating visibility, safety, and belonging.
To study the night today is to explore how dimensions of space, time, mobility, and inequality shift after dark. Night-time economies intersect with tourism; dark-sky movements intersect with biodiversity protection; nightlife intersects with governance; nocturnal labour intersects with global rhythms of production and care. These multilayered dimensions reveal the complexity of the night as an object of inquiry and as a lived, contested, and negotiated space.
At the same time, the atmospheres of the night—its lights, sounds, temperatures, densities, flows, and affects—shape how urban environments are sensed and inhabited. Atmospheric conditions produce attachments and aversions; they generate feelings of wonder, safety, discomfort, or belonging; and they influence how people move, gather, celebrate, resist, or work. Artistic interventions, design practices, and technological infrastructures play a key role in producing and modulating these atmospheres.
ICNS.LX7 invites contributions that investigate these horizons, dimensions, and atmospheres of the night; that interrogate how nocturnal futures are imagined and built; and that expand the conceptual, methodological, and practical possibilities of Night Studies.
Themes of Interest
We welcome submissions engaging critically with the nocturnal world. Suggested themes include, but are not limited to:
Historical and Emerging Horizons
- Genealogies of nocturnal cultures and practices
- Changing conceptions of the night across centuries
- Reconfigurations of night-time imaginaries in global contexts
Nocturnal Dimensions: Urban, Social, and Cultural
- Nightlife geographies, hospitality, and cultural ecologies
- Inequalities, policing, and contested urban spaces after dark
- Gendered, racialised, and LGBTQI+ nightscapes
- Night-time mobilities, infrastructures, and accessibility
Atmospheres, Senses, and Aesthetics
- Light, colour, sound, smell, temperature, density
- Sensory and affective geographies of the night
- Artistic interventions, installations, media art, and performance
- Visual cultures, film, photography, and nocturnal imaginaries
Tourism, Events and Night-time Economies
- Festivals, illuminated events, and night-time tourism
- Place branding, creativity, and culture-led regeneration
- Impact of tourism flows on the night and vice versa
Ecologies, Environments, and Planetary Nights
- Environmental impacts of artificial lighting
- Dark-sky initiatives and astro-tourism
- Nocturnal biodiversity, cohabitation, and ecosystems
Governance, Policy, and Planning
- Night-time governance models and comparative approaches
- Public policy, zoning, licensing, and regulation
- Safety, justice, inclusion and right to the night
Methods & Methodologies
- Ethnography, rhythmanalysis, sensory and mobile methods
- Data, digital infrastructures, and mapping the night
- Ethics and challenges of conducting research after dark
Presentation Formats
We welcome proposals for:
- Oral Presentations (15 min + discussion)
- Panels / Roundtables (3–4 coordinated papers)
- Workshops / Methodological Labs
- Short Films
Important Dates
- Abstract Submission Deadline: 30 March 2026
- Notification of Acceptance: 30 April 2026
- Conference Dates: 7–9 October 2026 (Online)
Submission Guidelines
- Length of abstract: 250–300 words
- Keywords: 4–6
- Languages: English
- Submitted thru this form
Submissions will be evaluated based on originality, clarity, relevance, and contribution to the interdisciplinary field of Night Studies.
About ICNS
The International Conference on Night Studies is an international platform dedicated to advancing frontier research, artistic practice, and professional knowledge related to the global urban night.
ICNS fosters dialogue between academia, civic actors, artists, activists, and policy-makers, strengthening international cooperation and expanding Night Studies as a field of inquiry.
ICNS.LX7 will be held fully online from 7–9 October 2026.
Organised by the International Night Studies Network (INSN) and LXNIGHTS Research Group, with institutional support from collaborating universities and research centres.
ICNS.LX 