[Nimmie (OP)]

Is anything black or dark cause of the absence of light or because it it's nature but only noticeable when there is no light?

[Bill S]

This seems like a rewording of the old question: Is darkness the absence of light, or light the absence of darkness. 
Put that way, it becomes obvious that light is the “tangible” thing, and if there is none about, things are dark.   

Black is simply the name we give to something that doesn’t emit or reflect light. 

….. but only noticeable when there is no light?

My mother told of a hymn she met as a child.  It contained the line: “Well he sees and knows it, when our light grows dim.”
She heard this as: “Well he sees a “nosit”, when our light grows dim.”
She wondered what a nosit was, and why anyone would see better if it grew dim.

I guess that would be called a mondegreen, these days.