Nyctous Aesthetic

I started my final project ideation by exploring potential aesthetics. I first looked at previous art that I have made, and I found common themes of vibrant colors and atmospheric scenes. One such piece that exemplifies these qualities, and was inspired by a mystical take on the word “petrichor”, is shown below.

A drawing of a forest after rain, with colorful pathways revealed in the puddle reflections.

I also took some time perusing images online, and came across a series of urban images labeled as being taken during “blue hour”. I spent a lot of time trying to track down the original source of several of the images, but ultimately decided that the original creators likely removed them. I will describe their vibe with a short poem instead:

Sodden streets amid the night, reflecting simple streetlight
While distant dormant buildings cloak themselves in haze
Solitary when viewed in situ, companioned to darkened blue
The submerged memory dredged beneath half liminal daze

The aesthetic of these photos emphasize dreamy late nights, urban environments, and ambient sounds, which is on the right track for what I want to go for. However, the photos I found are overwhelmingly blue in a way that evokes a somber-ness I am less captivated by.

In the happenstance of exploration, I then mentioned these ideas to my dad and he immediately pulled up about a dozen photographs he had taken of colorful atmospheric late-night street scenes, perfectly capturing the intersection of these ideas. I have selected a few of his photographs below to encapsulate the aesthetic I will pursue with this project.

Nighttime urban photos emphasizing atmosphere

Among these, the cover photo to this post feels the most colorful, though the presence of color seems impactful in even small quantities, as with the glare of stop lights, the soft yellow of office building windows, or the underlit green of trees shown here. Lighting is an unmistakable element to this aesthetic, though it accentuates other features within a scene as much as it is a feature itself. I also like the element of a star filled dark backdrop, most prominent in the last photo.

It was some time later that I came across the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows entry for the invented word nyctous, defined as follows:

“adj. feeling quietly overjoyed to be the only one awake in the middle of the night—sitting alone with a laptop and a cup of tea or strolling down the center line of an abandoned street—taking in the world like an empty theater between productions, stripped down to a simple black box, open to be whatever you want it to be.” [1]

I love this definition and feel it fits this aesthetic well, so I have adopted it as the relevant descriptor for my project.  I especially resonate with the presence of joy and a metaphorical empty stage as an instigation for imagination or inspiration within this definition. My next step is distilling these concepts into a physical project.

References:
[1] “Nyctous – The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.” Accessed: Mar. 29, 2025. [Online]. Available: https://www.thedictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/word/nyctous