Sunday Feature: Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche

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In-depth documentaries which explore music, history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature.

BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Feature, Nuit Blanche

What is it about the night? Artists and writers reveal their nocturnal creative processes.

Why are some people at their most creative at night? From dusk to dawn – hour by hour – artists, authors, graffiti writers, musicians and thinkers reveal their nocturnal processes.

“The evening hour gives us the irresponsibility which darkness and lamplight bestow. We are no longer quite ourselves.” – Virginia Woolf

Glenn Gould would “emerge along with the bats and the raccoons at twilight”. Franz Kafka wrote entire stories before sunrise. Hotel pianos distracted Duke Ellington until dawn. George Sand, James Baldwin, A L Kennedy, Marcel Proust… countless writers and artists come alive at night. Why?

In this composed feature we encounter self-proclaimed “night owls”, past and present – authors, musicians, painters, performers and thinkers – to discover what can be achieved before daybreak. We eavesdrop on nocturnal artists at work, at home, through whispered and intimate conversations, discovering why they feel most suited to these hours.

Is this really the time to achieve their best work? How do night atmospheres affect their energy? Do they consider the impact on their health?

The naturalist Chris Yates, who has written extensively about the night, rarely sleeps before dawn. His fascination with the world around him often peaks after dark “when perceptions of time slow down, senses heighten, and the powers of imagination widen”.

As well as Chris, we spend the night with artists across the UK and beyond, including ‘Shadow’ (a trans femme graffiti writer), the novelist and performer A L Kennedy, and the writer Sukhdev Sandhu, as they embark on their creative overnight excursions.

Sleep expert Dr Aliyah Rehman explores why creativity comes at certain hours. Researcher Mason Currey brings tales of night owls long departed. Timekeeping historian David Rooney considers who put clocks in charge – and people’s acts of resistance.

Includes an eclectic music soundtrack from Chopin to Schoenberg, Matt Berry to Morton Feldman, Nightmares On Wax to Doris Day…

Narrator: Laura Bauld 
Producer: Steve Urquhart
 
A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 3

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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