“A designer’s perspective on the use of lighting to manipulate mood within commercial and domestic interior design.”
Through my research and writing, I would like to be able to conclude various techniques used, to manipulate mood within a space, in relation to lighting. Over the years, research has been conducted to deduce what sort of lighting should be used in specific locations rather than others, depending on the mood altering necessities of a space. There are many principles I had not previously considered, that are involved in creating “good lighting” within a space which go beyond the actual lighting fixture or even the bulb itself.
A fundamental introduction to understanding lighting seems to recurrently rely on the interpretation of the eye in relation to light. Several books and articles primarily introduced the subject of lighting by allowing the reader to understand the relativity between the eye and light which allowed me to appreciate why we adapt to light in certain ways. I will further delve into how this effect our mood in the forthcoming paragraphs.
One cannot truly understand current trends and practices without observing their derivatives. Prior to the invention of electricity, there were two forms of lighting. The more primitive of the two being daylighting, this is also what our eyes have adapted to over the years. The second form of lighting, would have been a flame and these two sources would then be manipulated and adapted accordingly for the upcoming decades. Architecture was seldom modified and adapted to accommodate daylight in the best ways possible. Although primitive, studies where often carried out to determine which position would be most suitable to retain most light for the longest amount of h...
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...attention, which means literally as it states that increasing the light intensity in one given area can give it more prominence and impact. The third of which I found very interesting was that people enjoy facing illuminated walls as opposed to being illuminated themselves. These result where concluded from John Flynn and David Loe’s studies which deduced that in both cases individuals preferred illuminated walls. Although people do not like to be under a spotlight they do enjoy seeing one and feel more familiar with a space through this. The final example of light altering behaviour is the effect light has on posture and body language, this is clearly illustrated in the position one develops due to monitors and illuminated surfaces when working or reading from either.
Having previously mentioned the term “good lighting”, Prof. Ginthner delves into further detail
In the movie Edward Scissorhands, a lot of different cinematic techniques are used. This movie mostly focuses on lighting, usually using darker low-key lighting throughout most of the film to create a darker, creepy tone. Low-key lighting is used mostly in scenes with Edward scissorhands in them, not as much with the girl. A good example of these low-key lighting scenes are the beginning ones, when the girl first enters Edward’s castle. The atmosphere inside is dark and creepy, adding to the already mysterious and dark tone of the movie. Another example of a scene with low-key lighting is the very beginning of the credits screen. The words are displayed in white with the rest of the background as a dark and evil setting. This already gives
The glass doors gently moved aside at Heath’s presence with a calm whirring hum. With it being a horrendously bright day outside, Heath found the muscles around his eyes relaxing with a sigh when he finally didn’t have to shield his vision from the sun any longer. Fluorescent lights were miles better than sunlight, naturally – fluorescent lights did not burn flesh, they did not bring stinging pain to the eyes, and they did not pound heat relentlessly into the ground in the same unforgiving way that the sun did.
The nature of humans is to seek happiness, which may possibly result in chasing illusions rather than settling for harsh realities. In “The Lamp at Noon”, Sinclair Ross uses the wishes of the characters Paul and Ellen, as well as their difficult situation to contrast the concepts of dreams and realities. Specifically, Ross displays the gap between dreams and realities through Paul’s hope for the land to return and his ideal of being a successful farmer to explain that what outcomes may occur if one neglects reality and blindly pursues their dream. Paul wishes to stay on the farmland and believes that the land will be able to cultivate crops. However, Ellen persists that where they are living is a “desert” and reminds him of “the lamp lit at noon” (Ross
In this letter, there is also a strong appeal to the senses with the use of words such as luminosity and illumines. Catherine des Roches wrote, "And just as the body in all its proportions, and the shadow in its width cannot be seen without light, so the brilliant luminosity of your mind illumines for us the narrow path where I pray" (Roches 253). According to The Oxford English Dictionary, luminosity means shedding light and illumines means to light up or to enlighten spiritually. These two words are very strong and appeal to the senses to a great degree.
Imagery of light is used in Fisher’s collection of poems to symbolize positive facets of a life lived in poverty. People living in poverty are not given all the basic necessities required to live comfortably. Many impoverished persons are malnourished due to lack of resources such as sufficient food or appropriate clothing. The lack of living essentials and the inability to afford everything that they desire provides people living in poverty with a greater appreciation for small acts of kindness. Many of the poems in Fishers collection show aspects of the poor being grateful for the little things in life. One of the poems shows a little girl being extremely appreciative of something every...
Ralph heard the night watchman call lights out. The moon gleaming in the window was the only source of light within Ralph’s room now. Even in the dim light he could make out the sink and toilet. The room was padded, and the door had a glass window that reflected fluorescent light into the room. The combination of the artificial and natural light created a faint glimmer upon the mirror that hung above the sink.
Such as in Fig. 5 where we can see a blue backlight that illustrates a lone figure walking down a path and a lit streetlight at the front depicts a mood of isolation and evokes uneasiness in the audience as though the figure is being
The sudden change in luminance, occurring as Cheng lights the lantern, also conveys the effect that light has on a scene. A key part of mise-en-scene, directors utilize lighting to emphasize certain emotion or aspect of the scene (127 Bordwell and Thompson). In the case of the third segment, the use of low-key lighting emphasizes the contrast between lighter and darker areas, drawing even more attention to Lucy. Paired with the change in filter color, the lantern also represents Cheng’s newfound spiritual inspiration. Covering the room in colored light as it illuminates, the lantern mimics Cheng Huan.
654, line 1&2). The sunlight motion suggesting a “balance of upward and downward, rising and falling” (Harris, J. 2004), resplendent in nature and indirectly influences the reader spiritually and emotionally. Jane Kenyon’s Let Evening Come (1990), uses sunlight to project an image of a slow moving late afternoon sun, which will soon slip into the darkness of night. The light through the “chinks in the barn” (Kenyon, 1990, pg. 654, line 2), gives me the sense of an aging body and soul fading into the darkness.
I sit at a table, facing a partitioned wall; and I’m looking at a lighted coal-oil lamp which stands on the table close to the wall. I am entirely focused on the lamp, and light. (102)
of light being the main focus in this work. Shadow also plays a large part in the
“There is a sort of elation about sunlight on the upper part of a house. ” Edward Hopper, a classic realist painter of the twentieth century, had a fascination for light. His plays on the mood of light stretch as a major theme throughout his works, and contribute to the intensifying effect he could inject into seemingly every day scenes. His works took a dramatic appeal through the “eerie stillness's” and lone figures sprinkled throughout his paintings. Although influenced by Edgar Degas and Edouard Maent, Edward Hopper easily added his own personal touches to the beautiful style of realism.1
Williams, B. 1999. A History of Light and Lighting. [online] Available at: http://www.mts.net/~william5/history/hol.htm [Accessed: 5 Jan 2014].
Darkness is meant to conceal, light is meant to expose, and there is power intrinsically imbued in both of these. Murderers hide in the dark, waiting for their victims, and the atrocities of different countries are hidden in history and official memos and propaganda. At the same time, light exerts power because it illuminates, it discovers, it creates vulnerability on all it touches. These powers, however, do not simply exist; they are forged within every aspect of life, even the very structures that people live in. Low-income tenement apartments are built so that they are not seen, colored in a drab shade of gray or brick, build alongside one another so that they blend into the background. They have small lawns and even smaller windows so that people walking by cannot get a glimpse of the life inside; darkness is used to hide their sad reality. Victorian mansions, however, do not need to shroud themselves in darkness. Their almost treeless lawns, small front gardens, and large picture windows are meant to illuminate their wealth, showing it off for the entire world to see.
Color seems like a unique topic that researchers have been examining for quite some time. Various people have claimed that how we perceive color is the same universally and cross-culturally. We essentially see what is visible to our human eyes through a very small chunk of what is known as the electromagnetic spectrum. Although people with normal sight perceive this visible section of colors the same way, there is more contemporary research which points out that the way we categorize and think about color is more complex then it is made out to be. In this paper, I aim to discuss how there is support regarding how different cultures and languages do affect the way we understand and think about color. However, I believe there is much more close studying and research needed in the future to make more exceptional claims involving color perception to conclude that it is either solely universal or reliably dependent on one’s culture and language.