Lighting as a way of life
Paris 23rd November 2009
I am about to exchange “la France” for India, leaving shortly(hence my early posting today…). It is a good moment to reflect on the different cultures and how we specifically experience lighting in another country. There are many aspets to culture and there are many aspects to lighting. But the thought that I would like to share today is that of light being an ingredient of culture and way of life. We experience lighting differently from one country to another because it is influenced by its life style and culture.
Like wine being an integral part to the french culture, curry is an integral part of the indian culture. Though both are a part of our food chain, they have a different place and importance. As a result they are applied and experienced differently.
Could we view lighting in a similar way? In this case lighting as a key ingredient of “life”? Perhaps we could say that the way we apply and experience lighting is an acquired taste in a country’s culture? Like french wine…we can drink it in India, but somehow it tastes differently…we can eat indian curry in France, but the taste somehow is not the same…
La Tour Eiffel – celebrations
Paris 22nd November 2009
My visit to Paris would not be complete without seeing the recently installed celebration lighting on the famous Eiffel Tower. Till the end of the year a light show has been installed on one face of the Tower to celebrate its 120 years. The best vantage point to view this is from Trocadero. It attracts many visitors who come to enjoy the nearly 15 minute light show. It starts of with some stroboscopic effects, simulating stars, then slowly builds up to a caleidoscopic sequence and chase of lighting colours in different configurations. Despite the cold many people came to night to enjoy the magic of light. Celebrating the 120 years of the “grand dame” of Paris with this light show certainly brings some extra excitement .
Many cities around the world use lighting as a tool to promote and attract tourism, making their citizens proud of their city in the process. I mentioned the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in one of my earlier blogs. Hong Kong has its light symphony every night at 8pm which involves an orchestrated light show involving all major buildings along the waterfront. The New York Empire State Building has its various light scenes according to the various festive seasons, and so on. There is no doubt that lighting is a powerful and magical tool to promote cities, attract people and make its citizens proud!
Inspiration
Paris 21st November 2009
With a nice autumn sun caressing the buildings, nearly blue skies and trees turning into a beautiful orange-gold colour, Paris is a very inspiring city. Today I visited the famed Place du Terte in Mont Martre with my daughter, a keen artiste herself. With the sunlight filtering through the trees, seeing the many artistes, painters at work felt very inspiring. We could see how they were using the daylight, shadows and colours to create their artworks.
As lighting designers inspiration is something that is at the core of our lighting concept. Is hard to desribe and is different for each of us. I definitely get inspiration from the daytime lighting palette described above. The colours, the lights, the shadows, the interplay between light and its surroundings. When we start a lighting project, before their is a concept their is inspiration. Things that embody and will reflect the character of what we wish to illuminate. I find that inspiration for my works is an a-ha moment, suddenly it clicks, makes total sense. But it can be a long (and painful) process, when somehow the “lighting ingredients” dont make sense. We throw it away and start again. There is a saying that inspiration requires a lot of perspiration. In lighting design it is a lot like that…today I got inspired by the painters of Place du Tertre.
Paris, Ville Lumiere
Paris, 20th November 2009
Yes I am in Paris! La ville lumiere! I arrived this morning. For those who dont know… my mother is french (my father dutch) and as such half my family is french. I have visisted Paris since my childhood and know the city well. Many of my friends and family are here. It has been a while since I last visited Paris mainly because I spend most of my time in Asia now. This will be a trip of rediscovery.
With Xmas around the corner the lighting decorations are already abundant. The Eifel Tower with its new celebration lighting is on my list to visit. It is interesting to see and compare the lighting between, say Shanghai and Paris. Not sure what it is but it definitely feels different… or is it just the surroundings and heritage buildings that ooze a different ambience in combination with lighting. I think each (world) city has its own vibrancy, whether New York, Shanghai or Paris. Its buildings, its people, its climate. Lighting is just a component of the overall ambience and experience. Parisians take pride in their city and showcasing their landmark buildings (and there are so many!) specially at night! The Gallery Lafayettes on Boulevard Hausmann, is one of the worlds famous department stores like Saks 5th Avenue in New York, or David Jones in Sydney. They have their display windows and facades all done up and throngs of people just stand mesmerised in front of them looking at the magical displays. Lighting is the key ingredient for the magic!
Note: Perth in Western Australia, has also been called a City of Light. The reason however is different! When John Glenn, american austronaut flew over the Australian continent in his Mercury spaceship, he could clearly discern Perth in the night and hence in his transmission called Perth the City of Light.
Professional indemnity insurance
Singapore, 19th November 2009
Today one of my meetings was with our insurance agent, as our insurances are up for renewal. As a professional practice it is important to have your insurances in place. Besides the straight forward office insurances, the most important one is the so called professional indemnity insurance. The work that we do as lighting designers is a responsible one in most cases. In other words like architects and other professional engineers, our work must be of a publicly safe quality standard.
We are sometimes called in as expert lighting advisers when accidents happen that may have been caused by “bad” lighting conditions. Recently we had such case on a mining site in Australia. A worker had died through accident during his night shift. There was reason to believe that “bad” lighting was the cause and we were called in to investigate and report back to the company lawyers. In another case I am aware of a chandelier that came down from the ceiling of a hotel due to poor quality of installation. While we have a whole list of probable reasons why it is not the cause of our lighting design specifications, we have to be professionally insured against such cases where poor lighting design may be at the root of an accident.
Awareness and education
Shanghai, 18th November 2009
As I am preparing to travel back to the humid heat of Singapore, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to PLDA/Via-Verlag for hosting this blog. As of today I am featuring proudly on the PLD website! This blog project has now officially been launched in lighting design world…it is a bit daunting but I believe I am up to the challenge of producing an etry on a daily basis for the next year despite my hectic schedule. I may face some challenges to post my blog from remote site locations, but if that happens I will still write the blog and post it at the next possibility. I have no idea what to expect but will let the daily events and feedbacks guide the further development of the blog.
This is a good occasion to highlight the importance of education and creating awareness of the benefits of better lighting. PLDA has been doing an amazing job in promoting lighting and lighting design since its inception and people like myself, who have been in the lighting design business for so long (for me 30 years now!) should rise to the education challenge. We have the task to educate our new generation of lighting designers by sharing our knowledge with them. We should never be afraid to share. To our own people or with our clients. I believe this blog offers a great platform towards awareness and education.
The power of communication
Shanghai 17th November 2009
China or at least Shanghai, has officially declared that winter has arrived! When temperatures drop below 10 degrees for 5 consecutive days it is a sign that winter has officially begun. It has obviously arrived early this year! In China they dont go by date, winter arrives when it is cold, makes sense, right?!
My thought for the day is about the power of communication. While it is a subject that applies to all facets of life (specifically in personal relationships!) it is of extreme importance in our daily work as lighting designers. And when I talk about communication I mean the clarity of communication. Just sending out some lighting plans to a client without proper explanation, does not mean all is clear. We too often assume the other party understands and knows what it is all about. My point of view (through bitter experience…) is: “never assume anything!” Communicate with you staff, communicate with your fellow project consultants, communicate with your clients! By being clear and having common understanding you put yourself in a powerful position to complete the lighting projectwith everyones support… or at least understanding. You can always agree to disagree and then take decisions accordingly. When people dont know they always assume the worst. I found in my projects that clear communication is one of the most powerful tools to the success of a project!
Light and glass
Shanghai, 16th November 2009
Another day in China… winter is really approaching fast with temperatures dropping well below 10 degrees Celsius in Shanghai. Watching TV at times can be a good alternative to going out in the cold.. If you don’t have cable, there are not many English – Chinese TV channels in China, CCTV 9 and ICS (International Channel Shanghai) are the two that can be received in Shanghai. On ICS I watched a program called Getaway which was showcasing Venice in Italy and of course its famous Murano glass.
Besides that glass is an amazing invention (does anybody know who invented glass?), it is a material and component that has become integral to many lighting applications and design concepts. It is the window to day light; it is used as protection cover in luminaires or a component in lanterns and chandeliers. It’s translucency can be varied from clear to opaque and even be colored to desire. Now with the advent of LED technology, the integration of glass and light (think of Ingo Maurer!) has created even more opportunities for lighting designers. As part of our design skills it is important that we integrate our knowledge of light and materials, specifically translucent and reflective materials.
Lighting design style
Shanghai, 15th November 2009
Last night I was invited as a guest to gala dinner organized by the Italian Chamber of Commerce which was held in the Ballroom of the newly renovated Peninsula Hotel in Shanghai. I had already intended to visit the hotel in its new glory to check out the lighting, so this was the perfect occasion! As I was sitting at a table with lighting minded people (our table host was IGuzzini) I got into a discussions about the lighting of the ballroom. I had noticed that there were some strong bright splashes of light across the wall, seemingly random, possibly the result of bad aiming of some of the down lights along the walls. I couldn’t tell whether it was accidental or premeditated. But because the artwork and walls were not accentuated, the few bright flashes brought some much needed visual spark to the room.
I got into an argument about lighting design styles as I argued that the light patches were accidental and that greater care should have been given to actually organize the lighting according to the interior design rhythms and artwork locations on the walls. Someone else argued that it was more of an artistic license to break with the expected and apply random effects in an otherwise organized interior. Which led me to reflect on the fact that probably all lighting designers are creative in their own way, however for some the creative process follows more organized, logical and practical patterns, for others it is artistic, free flowing and non-conventional . By the way I still don’t know whether the effect was intentional of accidental….
Daily Dose of Daylight
Shanghai, 14th November 2009
I would like to promote the 3D’s today… your Daily Daylight Dose. Did you have yours? Since more than a year now I have taken the habit of starting the day with a brisk 30 minutes morning walk, come rain or shine. While it initially started as a fitness exercise I have come to realize that my morning walks are more than that. It is obvious now that the daily exposure to daylight has far greater impact than energy burning only. Several key note speakers at PLDC have demonstrated how important it is that we are exposed to the qualities of daylight. Certainly considering that we spend so much time indoors! I find that my early morning walks (sometimes at sunrise) gives you something like fresh new energy and motivation for the day! It sorts of reconnects you with life. It is also a good time to reflect and think of the day ahead. Because I travel a lot my walks are very varied. Today I walked the busy streets of Shanghai; a week ago I was walking Maroubra Beach in Sydney… The other thing noticeable is that every city, every country has their own type of daylight in terms of colour and intensity. The daylight in Shanghai is definitely different than in Singapore or Sydney. Add to that the smell (and various degrees of pollution…) and you will appreciate that each day, each walk, can be a stimulating and healthy experience in many ways. Try your DDD tomorrow and let me know!
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