Tangible Darkness

You can plainly see that there is no substance to touch in this eerie and yet angelic landscape of emptiness. However, when you begin to feel some strange pressure pushing at your skin, you decide to reach out and touch what should not be there. The connection that occurs when your hand holds onto darkness is like nothing you have ever known, and you wonder if perhaps you should shove it away and run or reel it in for a hug. Darkness, in contrast with brightness, is a relative absence of visible light. It is the appearance of black in a color space. When light is not present, rod and cone cells within the eye are not stimulated. This lack of stimulation means photoreceptor cells are unable to distinguish color frequency and wavelength. The resulting perception is achromatic and in the case of darkness, black. The emotional reaction to darkness has metaphorical importance in many cultures. Religious texts often use darkness to make a visual point. In the Bible, darkness was the second to last plague (Exodus 10:21) and the location of “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 8:12) The Qur’an has been interpreted to say that those who transgress the bounds of what is right are doomed to “burning despair and ice-cold darkness.” (Nab 78.25). In Old English there were three words that could mean darkness: heolstor, genip, and sceadu. Heolstor also meant “hiding-place” and became holster. Genip meant “mist” and fell out of use like many strong verbs. It is however still used in the Dutch saying "in het geniep" which means secretly. Sceadu meant “shadow” and remained in use. The word dark eventually evolved from the word deorc.