Experiment # 15 Lighting, city and society: urban architectural lighting to awaken and respond to individual and collective sensory activity.
The cities, direct accomplices of the urban life of the different population, are the permanent result of evolution: architectural, scientific and constructive. The transitions suffered year after year are only the result of a process, irregular in many cases, which in certain occasions leaves aside its main user, people.
The need to involve society in the urban transformation of cities is the responsibility of each one of the people who, to a greater or lesser degree, participate in its development: architects, designers, engineers, lighting designers, we are responsible for making the decisions that affect the cities be analyzed according to the needs of the end user: the passer-by, the people, the tourist, and more.
This character without a name, or with a coding defined at the time of his birth and depending on his geographical location, is the one who "uses" the city and based on who, we should decide the improvements, changes or implementations that are made in the cities.
But, how do we evaluate the needs of a user? and how do we transform those needs into quantifiable answers that professionals can understand?
Experimentation is the answer, propose studies that mix two ideas: provide a service to society and at the same time obtain answers according to their criteria and depending on the service provided; this is the main idea of this experimentation.
One year ago, when making an urban light art proposal, I could see how different social groups reacted differently to the stimuli that the artistic proposal implied. That led me to take more attention on the public that contemplated various lighting projects (architectural lighting, landscape lighting, light art projects) The reactions of each group surprised me, the light had several effects and "powers" on the society that I did not know myself or did not dare to experiment and empower.
Like certain animals and their phototaxis, human beings also experienced the need to approach light, it was not about novelty but the need which expectant users felt to approach, perceive, touch it, surround it.
Each one of the reactions of the people before the stimuli of the light, were quantified, analyzed and put into practice for a following process of test, where the obtained conclusions, were the starting point of the conceptualization of a new lighting project and for the first time, this conceptualization was not based solely on the architecture of the building or space to be illuminated, nor the sole criterion of the lighting designer or responsible team, but of the cognitive and sensory needs of its potential users and visitors.
The inter-relation between society and the ability of light to transform the night landscapes of a city became the main element of this study.*
By: Xavier Guambaña J.
*Summary of the paper "Experiment # 15" for the 7th PLDC Professional Lighting Design Convention 2018.
