Tp1 essay

the following is a bibliographic essay I wrote for Thesis Prep 1:

Phase out the Electric Light; Embrace the Shadow and Understand Space

In shadows people have heightened senses, their eyes cannot fully see what is happening around them. Dark spaces provide the opportunity to use all senses compared to when being in a shadow less environment where the sense of vision overpowers the other four senses. Being constantly exposed to artificial light has made people less aware of their surroundings because everything is visibly presented to them. People interact with shadowed spaces in a distinct way compared to when in a space that is fully lit, they start to feel, hear, see, smell, and taste things very differently. Since artificial lighting is overpowering today’s contemporary society and seeing is believing appears to be the motto of this society, this thesis will explore how shadows can be integrated into design so that material qualities can be used to invigorate all five senses and allow people to be more aware of their surroundings. The mysterious feeling established in shadows will slow one down and force users to understand the spaces they are in rather than speeding through a space and just seeing it.

Defining what is natural light and what is considered artificial light is most important before any discussion takes place. Natural light is also known as daylight. “The sun and the sky are the two daylight sources available”. (Steffy 1990) these are the only two natural sources of light that we have to work with. The sun produces daylight and the sky holds the light to disperse it over our globe. “Natural sources of light produce visible energy in varying amounts and in varying mixes over time” (Steffy 1990). The sun produces light that varies every day and every hour. It can be affected by the weather, natural surroundings such as trees, and is only visible during certain hours of the day. On the other hand, artificial lighting is planned and has a constant luminance. “There are four general families of electric light sources: incandescent, cold cathode, fluorescent, and high intensity discharge.” (Steffy 1990). These four sources of artificial lighting are the most used versions. To clarify: Natural light is anything relating to the sun and sky while artificial light is anything man made.

Louis I. Kahn is known as one of the most famous architects to work with natural light. “No space” Kahn said, “ is really architectural space unless it has natural light” (Brownlee and De Long 1997). Kahn was a firm believer in using natural light to develop spaces. His most famous works did not come until the late years of his life. Exeter Library, Kimbell Art Museum, and the Yale Art Gallery were all produced during his later years. Exeter library is a great example of how natural light creates space,

“(Exeter Library) was a much more classical design that faced inward to one of Kahn’s primordial rooms. Here, one level above the ground, the reader was introduced into the building by a square space, confidently defined by structure and light: circles of concrete framed each interior elevation, bracing the main piers at the corners and the sun entered from above to bathe the whole in quiet brightness.” (Brownlee and De Long 1997)

Kahn believed that light formed structure and should be used to help develop space. When writing about his designs, it is hard to not mention how natural light is brought into his spaces. His goal was to “Confidently define by structure and light” Kahn intended to use light as a material much like how steel is used for structure. Nancy Ruck would agree, “ Light, in general, can be thought of in architectural terms as a structural material that can be used in a building to serve various functions. Like other materials such as brick, steel, stone, and concrete, it should therefore not be treated as applied decoration or as equipment that can be added after the building is designed.” (Ruck 1989, 40). Kahn realized that light can be considered a material and used it to its fullest potential. “A brick wants to be a brick” Kahn would say however, he used light the way light wants to be used, as a material that creates and defines space. The way he uses light visually defines space.

Shadows create opportunities to discover things that may not have been discovered in bright light. Over exposure to light causes us to see things rather than experience them. Details that are not so obvious while in bright light start to become overlooked, or maybe they are too obvious and are just seen and not thought about. In Japanese architecture, the use of shadows is very prominent. Imagine entering into a restaurant lit only with candles and diffused natural sunlight through layers of paper instead of glass. This dark space provides a space to sit in meditation as one would take their time to enjoy their meal. Now replace the candles with bright electric lighting. The flickering of the candles is removed and everything is now visible. It was “then that (I realized) only in dim half-light is the true beauty of Japanese lacquerware.” (Tanizaki 1997, 13) Tanizaki frequented a restaurant for many years because of how it still used candlelight instead of electric lighting. The moment the restaurant switched to electric light, Tanizaki realized the effect shadows had on the dinnerware he ate on. He demanded that he be switched into a room lit only by candlelight, “I gazed at the trays and bowls standing in the shadows cast by flickering flame, I discovered in the gloss of this laquerware a depth and richness, a beauty I had not before seen” (Tanizaki 1997, 13). The discovery by Tanizaki was made when darkness was taken away from him and light was forced into his environment. Electric light made his meal less pleasant because his food and how it was presented to him did not hold the beauty in light as it had in shadows. Japanese laquerware is made mostly of wood and has a heavy gloss coated on the outside. Ancient laquerware was designed to be dark and heavy; by itself it would not normally be described as aesthetically pleasing. However, “It is the relationship among things- rather than the things themselves- that’s gives objects their identities” (Mitnick 2008, 42), meaning that there are certain things designed to be in certain environments that require the characteristics of that environment for their proper use. Without the proper environment the object becomes ineffective. It is not the material or quality that makes the laquerware a great thing, it is the combination of shadows and the material that makes the laquerware great. In turn this theory of viewing through the shadow can be applied to the experience of architectural spaces.

Shadows create mystery. They are deceiving to the eye, especially when changing from light to dark. Shadows cause people to slow down and formulate what is actually happening around them. Artist James Turrell specializes in dark art. He plays with the transition time it takes the human eye to change from day vision to night vision. His pieces of work encourage the user to enter into a silent dark space and wait the appropriate amount of time it takes for the eye to change from day vision to night vision. Speaking of his permanent gallery at the Mattress Factory Art Museum:

“Taking a seat, you are enveloped in darkness and silence, relieved only by the faintest hint of milky light hovering cloudlike somewhat in front of you. Compulsively, you focus on what little light you can see. Since it is too dim to “place” spatially, and since you can get no sense of the shape of the space around you the nimbus of light begins to play strangely upon your optic nerves. It starts to pulse, to move towards you and lose its definition as something distinct from the activity of your own sensory apparatus. Gradually, aided by the total silence of the soundproof space, it dissolves your normal sense of your body as a boundary dividing what you see from what enables you to see it. Only after about 20 minutes of virtually hallucinatory experience do you become accustomed enough to the lighting conditions to discern the real terms of the experience the work has provided.” (Adcock 1990, 107).

Turrell’s work provides an almost out of body experience to darkness. He uses the sense of vision as a starting point, focusing on the eye and how long it takes to transition from day to night vision, and places viewers into a dark room allowing the mind to wonder. For 20 minutes the user cannot see, or hear anything, creating mystery because they do not know what is happening around them. Vidler would agree, “Darkness is not the simple absence of light. There is something positive about it…. darkness is “filled,” it touches the individual directly, envelopes him, penetrates him, and even passes through him.” (Vidler 1992, 175). This quote from Vidler reiterates the unique experience of Turrell’s Dark Art simplistically. Turrell is not simply taking away light to create darkness. Turrell takes away light to use darkness as a material that can overtake a room. This material imposes silence, and allows one to sit in darkness and think of nothing but what is going on around them. Tanizaki mentions similar feelings when speaking of a Japanese alcove in a house:

“When we gaze into the darkness that gathers behind the crossbeam, though we know perfectly well it is mere shadow, we are overcome with the feeling that in this small corner of the atmosphere there reigns complete and utter silence; that here in the darkness immutable tranquility holds sway. [There is an] uncanny silence [to] these dark places. And even we as children would feel an inexpressible chill as we peered into the depths of an alcove to which the sunlight never penetrated.” (Tanizaki 1997, 20).

Tanizaki also refers to the silence a dark space contains. Each aforementioned author presents silence and darkness together to expose a mystical setting to shadowed spaces. The not knowing and the silence envelopes the body to a point where shadow becomes an unknown area where one’s mind is encouraged to wonder.

In conclusion the idea of phasing out artificial light and embracing the shadow is meant to make people more aware of what is going around them. This has been done in different ways whether it is filling a room with darkness and allowing one’s mind to wonder or by using natural light to create space and structure. Shadows have a way of making people notice things differently. In Tanizaki’s case, with the laquerware, the dim flickering light from the candles and the shadows that were allowed to fill the space, gave the opportunity for him to read materials differently and discover their unique beauties. In brightly lit rooms one would see the decorations on the side of the bowls. What would easily be missed is the beauty and depth of the natural wood grains combined with gloss the bowls emits because the light would over saturate everything.

Kahn uses natural light to create and define space. Light is a building material and wants to be used to its fullest extent. Defining light as structure means that light needs to be considered during the design of the building. Light should be displayed as a planed occurrence and should be equally as important as the structure that makes the space. According to Kahn, light as ornament is not architectural and should be avoided.

Darkness is a material that can penetrate and completely surround a room. Turrell uses this idea to an extreme level as he makes one feel as if they were in solitary confinement with nothing but the thoughts in their head. Not being able to see or hear anything slows people down. He has his participants sit on a chair for at least twenty minutes while their eyes transition from light to dark. For twenty minutes he has them stationary and alone in an empty space without light and without noise. The very act of them sitting is slowing people down. This kind of darkness could make a small room feel large or a large room feel small. There is no sense of space or size to a room filled with darkness, there are no sounds to judge where walls could be, just the chair and silent darkness. Darkness can fill spaces and allow people to experience space but it will be the combination of darkness and materials that will allow people to interact with spaces differently then if they were fully lit. Both shadows and materiality will work together to create spaces with unique experiential qualities.

There is an eerie silence to shadows, a silence that creates mystery and anticipation. Shadows are dark spaces that make people think about what lies ahead inside the darkness. Stepping into the shadow initiates the use of all senses in a way that being in well lit space does not allow.

Bibliography

Adcock, Craig E. James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1990.

Brownlee, David, and David G. De Long. Kahn. New York, NY: Universe Publishing, 1997.

Holl, Steven. Questions of Pereception. San Francisco, CA: William Stout, 2006.

Mitnick, Keith. Artificial Light: A Narrative Inquiry into the Nature of Abstraction, immediacy, and other Architectural Fictions. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008.

Ruck, Nancy. Building Design and Human Performance. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1989.

Steffy, Gary R. Architectural Lighting Design. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.

Tanizaki, Jun'ichiro. In Praise of Shadows. Sedgwick, ME: Leete's Island Books, 1997.

Vidler, Anthony. The Architectural Uncanny. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1992.