Droit au jour

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The right to daylight is the preserve of an admin­is­tra­tion tasked to ensure citizens’ well-being by regu­lat­ing their access to natural light. You are invited to follow the vari­ous bureau­cratic steps required for recog­ni­tion of this right, which has been eroded consid­er­ably since the inven­tion of the elec­tric light bulb. Strug­gling to wake up in the morn­ing? That’s perfectly normal: it’s your chro­no­type, and you will be able to leave with an unof­fi­cial docu­ment certi­fy­ing it. Feel­ing depressed? Never mind: follow­ing an analysis of your situ­ation, you may be eligible for a prior­ity daylight card.

Visit­ors are invited to visit the local branch, self-service since the estab­lish­ment of self-admin­is­tra­tion, of the Cantonal Office of the Right to Day. This organ­isa­tion grants every­one an inali­en­able right to natural light, taking into account each indi­vidu­al’s physiolo­gical and psycho­lo­gical profile, with a guar­an­tee of adjust­ing collect­ive and social struc­tures. Born out of a citizens’ and scientific mobil­isa­tion against the product­iv­ist logic deny­ing essen­tial access to daylight, this struc­ture raises aware­ness of chro­no­types – often-ignored biolo­gical clocks – and specific light needs. It provides docu­ments to adapt sched­ules and prior­it­ise access to bright spaces. Engaged in prevent­ing prac­tices harm­ful to daylight, it offers advice on adjust­ing beha­viour to daily needs for natural light.

This polit­ical fiction prob­lem­at­ises access to natural light, a crucial public health and ecolo­gical issue still absent from govern­mental prior­it­ies. Increas­ing inequal­it­ies, urban­isa­tion, light pollu­tion, screen time and the discon­nec­tion of social rhythms from natural cycles disrupt our health. This simu­la­tion reminds us that, despite tech­no­logy and economic growth, we remain biolo­gical beings living on a planet in solar orbit. Embed­ding the right to daylight in a design-fiction approach informed by science invites visit­ors to rethink natural light as a common good to be protec­ted, and as a poten­tial field of public health. The simu­la­tion proposes hypo­thet­ical tools to meet this chal­lenge, while affirm­ing that tech­no­logy is not always the solu­tion.