Week 2: Lighting

The second theme is lighting. My timeline was inspired by nature so I put up fireflies as an example. They use their natural bioluminesence to communicate between themselves and to other species around them. Their light can be used to attract a mate or keep unwanted predators away. Either way, their light informs others of their position and inform others whether to come closer or keep away. Light in this example communicates position and movement and a sense of personal space. Throughout my exploration, I noticed that light is crucial in many places to define a space.

In nature, different geographic locations are heavily influenced by the quality of natural light they receive. I grew up in Beijing and remember the harsh summer sunlight from my childhood. When I came to America and settled in New England, the dramatic changes between the four seasons was defined by the changing hours and shades of daylight. A couple years ago, my strongest impression of light defining a geographic space was when I spent a summer in Anchorage, Alaska. I landed in Anchorage at 1am and saw the sun still lingering a good distance from the horizon. Seeing the midnight sun is a memory I will always remember. The last week I spent in Anchorage in late August, I was able to watch an Alaskan sunset. It was the longest and most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

Because natural light differs so much from place to place, I chose to put light therapy in my timeline. Light therapy is basically man's answer to help those living in places where light is scarce during the winter to get exposure to a full spectrum light to keep people from feeling emotional disturbances as a result of lack of sunlight.

My other artificial examples of light relate to the sense of place and space in a way similar to the example of the firefly. These examples of light tell people of the condition of the space they are in or are approaching. The lighthouse warns mariners of rocky or potential hazardous shores. Traffic lights direct how cars and pedestrians move along roads. And flares express a person's location in order to attract help. Light in these examples inform people of how to interact with a space and how to interact with each other in a space.