Glowing review
Media partner id will celebrate light with iGuzzini during regional screenings of Light Collective’s documentary The Perfect Light
I n anticipation of the regional premieres of The Perfect Light at Light Middle East (23-25 September) and the Beirut Design Fair (20-23 September), we caught up with Martin Lupton and Sharon Stammers of Light Collective, the UK-based creative lighting consultancy that boasts a crazy mixture of architectural lighting design and light-based projects.
How do you define the perfect light in the 21st century?
The film shows that it’s impossible to define. Everybody is able to describe a situation where they have experienced ‘perfect light’ but it is particular to that moment. In another moment, the light might be different. There is a popular lighting design saying: ‘The right light, in the right place at the right time’. This could help to describe how we can create ‘perfect light.’
What lighting trends are you excited about? Which give you pause?
For a long time, people have been talking about lasers as something that will replace LEDs. It was even mentioned in some of the interviews. However, at Light & Building this year, we saw a few companies showcasing laser light and we weren’t very impressed with its quality and couldn’t imagine it taking off. The whole notion of connected light has always seemed exciting – but again we are failing to see really good use cases that convince us that light can be really integrated and can do more than dim or switch on and off…
How can lighting enhance well-being?
The whole ‘human-centric’ and ‘biological’ lighting movement is interesting as it is finally acknowledging how important it is that we are exposed to the right amount and right colour temperature of light throughout the day. However, as an industry, we need to be very cautious as to how we sell lighting that can supposedly enhance well-being. Like when selling food and [prescription] drugs, this needs to be substantiated.
What unconventional lighting concepts do you wish were normalised?
We always wish that the same amount of attention that is given to city centres and high-end housing could be applied to everyone. It appears that the best lighting can be experienced only by those that can afford it. We also wish that lighting education was a mainstream topic and that everyone understood the basics of lighting in order to improve their environment.
What was the most challenging part of creating the film?
The most challenging part was the fact that we are lighting designers, not film makers, and this was an epic learning curve. We shot far too much footage and had to cut down 30 hours to 35 minutes – and we really didn’t want to offend any of our amazing participants. It’s aimed at the lighting industry specifically but can be viewed by architects and interior designers or anyone else specifying LED. We just question why and how we got to that place. Does it mean it’s the best light source ever? We wanted people to question that.