Light design and atmosphere

This article explores how designing with illumination and darkness can contribute to atmospheres. Light and dark possess multiple qualities, extend across space, blend the representational and the non-representational, and meld sensation, affect and emotion. Though always conducive to the production of myriad atmospheric effects, new forms of lighting art and the creations devised for light festivals offer opportunities to re-enchant urban space, generating vibrant, dynamic atmospheres. Moreover, there has recently been a reappraisal of the qualities of darkness, which is also increasingly being deployed in novel ways to foster atmospheres. Firstly, the author discusses Spectra, by Ryoji Ikeda, installed in London for a week in August 2014. Secondly, he focuses on Ron Haselden’s Fête at Durham’s 2013 Lumière light festival. Thirdly, he looks at a concert staged in the dark by a blind Malian couple, Amadou and Mariam, as part of Manchester International Festival of 2011.