Into the Night and Back Again

Do we need a darker companion to access our creative depths? Is there a natural utopian thinking that unleashes when the sun sets? Three creatives – and friends of the night – share their thoughts on nocturnal togetherness (and solitude), reflecting on situations, sensations, releases, and communities that defy daytime norms. And how to find your way back once the sun rises, potentially informing our daytime ways with the learnings of the night. 

The French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry succeeded in the multilayered task of writing a book for both children and adults, the much adored “The Little Prince”. He once said: “Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.”

What comes alive when night falls? And how does the night inform the day?

“Nighttime creativity is about wonderful aimlessness, asking ‘what if’, and building utopias”

Vesa Kemppainen, Art Director, Fiskars Group 

“Nightlife has been part of my life since I was 17. We sometimes think that a nighttime identity is contradictory to our daytime selves. Nighttime creativity, such as in the club world, is limitless, wonderfully aimless, and collective – whereas daytime creativity already has a set target. At night, you can easily ask ‘what if’.

I founded the artistic collective and club night La Persé in the early 2000s with friends because we didn’t find our place in Helsinki’s fairly homogenous nightlife at the time. We just started creating looks and operating a sort of dress-up zoo every two weeks. It hit a spot and was our way of cherishing the international tradition of Club Kids.

Money doesn’t get you everything at clubs, it’s not even the point. You might get a couple of hundred euros for a DJ gig, but you spend that on the looks of the night. Scarcity of resources is part of the game, and creativity steps in where the money ends. Encounters are inclusive, and when you meet someone during the day who you’ve danced with, it’s always easier to strike a conversation. The same mechanism is why company parties have value: if you sing karaoke with someone from finance, a face becomes more than just an e-mail address. 

Nightlife travels much deeper than getting drunk. It’s a sense-driven way of life. Taking something to the level of experiencing should also be cherished during the day. The night can serve as great inspiration for poking at the borders, a willingness to change, and getting rebellious. Gay clubs and ballroom culture, for instance, have inspired the mainstream enormously. At night, the utopia is already alive. This type of thinking can be very useful for the radical creativity that is currently much discussed in Finland, borrowing the title of Emilia Hernesniemi’s recent documentary film.    

Even a classic brand can get radical. At Fiskars, we’ve gone to places like Pitti Uomo with an unexpected gardening fashion collaboration – simply by asking ‘what if’? If a product is radical at a certain moment, maybe that’s why it has stood the test of time. Creative work demands trust and wearing pink goggles. Creating fantasies and saying your wishes out loud, just like at night. And my nocturnal vision for Fiskars? I’d love it we were there when the first garden on the Moon is designed.”   
 

“The night helps to break free, release, and find clarity for your voice"

‍Irene Kostas, Founder & Creative Director, ONAR

“I love the moment at a club or gig just before the dance floor fills up. It’s a trip of its own, something free of preconceptions, even vulnerable, for both the performer and the audience. There is plenty of fuel for creativity in a space that is open and lacks categories, where people of different socioeconomic classes gather for meaning, curiosity, agelessness, somatics, and all-around kinesis. You notice it when it’s not there, like during the lockdowns. 

Presence is one of the key aspects of nightlife. Staying with explorative movement and expanding the mind – and not necessarily through substances. Just the fact that something happens at night is a good opportunity to let go of daytime roles and norms. I love dancing and music and have played a lot of DJ gigs, especially before the pandemic and before having a kid. But I still cherish the night. I feel I can create my own space and get deep into my thoughts, also on the dance floor. 

A lot of my creative work takes place outside the nine-to-five. I sometimes get up at night and take a moment to work. It’s not only about the darkness; it’s about knowing that the rest of the world has stopped moving. The night doesn’t ask for thoughts that are finished. Design work can learn a lot from nighttime ideas. Like with music, it’s good to be open to something new and not see your taste as stagnant. Not knowing what is offered is great exposure that contrasts a more straightforward daytime.

I inhabit different communities and come from two different cultures. I see the night as another congregation. When you meet people at night, there is a certain anarchy that creates a strong community, even with the navigation of different states of belonging and at times being an outsider. An underground party works differently than social media algorithms: needs are not locked and optimised, and you can instead break free and release, and even hear your own voice better than during the day when many things are pre-set.

I create clothing and accessories from components that already exist, and we only make pieces after a customer has expressed a wish. This type of customisation also detaches itself from the standards and norms that are way too common for our own good in our daytime lives.“ 

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“The night is for resting – and also for hunting, alertness, adventure, a continuous sound”

Tuomas Toivonen, Owner, NOW for Architecture and Urbanism & Founder, Kulttuurisauna public sauna

“I got a strong feeling during Covid that the night died, and it did good to it. The interesting parts of the night became released, and the occasional DIY soundsystems and self-made events here and there felt very fresh. There was a thinking that enticing things don’t need to only happen at night or at nightlife venues, but instead whenever and wherever.

I’m not so excited anymore about the nightlife of my youth. Exciting things can happen in the morning or during office hours; maybe it’s even more radical. In some places, like Berlin, the concept of night has tipped over, and nighttime things take place also at other times. The night is the opposite of the day; it’s a space and logic to escape everyday frames and routine-like anticipation. The night is interesting because anything can happen.

One of the crucial tasks of the night is resting and restoring. But when you enter the night hours, different senses from deep history awaken: hunting, darkness, alertness, adventure, a continuous sound. The nighttime forest differs from the daytime woods – skiing in the moonlight brings an extreme awareness.

I often work at night. There is a different opportunity for concentration; you can be alone. I sometimes kayak to an island at night, and it feels strange that across the water people are sitting next to each other in small spaces when I’m sitting on a rock. My night is nowadays often a solitary one. If I would build a club right now, it would be open whenever. Wild things could happen when you want them to. The stereotypical urban night is an attempt that often fails because you get tired, because you never fully reach what you aim for.

What could be the type of night that you can always carry with you? And is this possible? Letting go of social norms without the endless and exhausting search for intoxication and the wild self, which is not durable. We don’t necessarily need the full night for imaginative gatherings and spaces.

During the pandemic, we switched the Kulttuurisauna opening hours to early mornings. Hosting a Mika Vainio listening room in the south wing, it was impressive to see people first listen to electronic minimalism alone for an hour, and then have a sauna and swim in silence, followed by morning coffee and porridge – and still have their full day ahead of them.“