Conceptual lighting, narratives and experiences

• Main Author: Chew, Kelvin Wei Zhong
• Other Authors: Wong Chen-Hsi
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music::Film::Digital
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63304
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Sight (for the majority of people) is accountable for a vast spectrum of our experiences. In Descartes’ Optiques (Optics, 1637), he declared that “sight is the most comprehensive and noblest” of the senses, and it echos Platonic Doctrine’s regard for sight as the first and highest order in respect to the soul and the most immediate of senses. Acknowledging the high order of sight, would also acknowledge the importance of sight in respect to construction of our experiences. Light is the enabler of all imaging possibilities – sight is possible only with light and when one talk about analog or digital image capture capabilities, it essentially refers to the process of capturing light through a medium. In light of the connection between light and sight, would one then be able to augment our experiences by augmenting light?The question posed above, formed the backbone of the explorations executed through out the duration of the Final Year Project. The year was dedicated to studying the effects of light – specifically how manipulation of light, augments its psychological and physiological effects on the receiver. This exploration is part of the artist’s larger research on augmenting sensory experiences and manipulating emotional response through the use of technological intermediaries. For example, an investigation on the perception of digital images re-encoded into sound through software intermediaries was executed during his involvement in Ureca 2013/2014. Titled “Sound of Silence”, the investigation essentially explores the relationship between visual and sonic memory, and how experience is augmented when the relationship between visual and sonic memory is reversed through the use of digital intermediary. Moving back, the concepts derived from the study of light, were applied to both the films that were shot specifically for Final Year Project(s) and projects outside of the FYP perimeters. This essay seeks to document and discuss the explorations, challenges and findings of various executions. For the purpose of discussion, this essay would group the explorations into three categories, a) Lighting the Imagined - discussing the research and challenges of planning and executing lighting environments that serve the narrative and mood of computer generated scenes, b) Lighting for Narratives, exploring how lighting texture and mood contributes deeply to the narrative structure of a film and lastly c) Lighting the Experience, explores the physicality of volumetric light through haze and its corresponding physiological and psychological effects. Concluding the discussion, this essay would compare and discuss the differences and similarities in the effects of lighting across the three categories.