Artificial lighting design for paintings in indoor settings with selected nanyang paintings as a case study

• Main Author: Ong, Nicholas Thian Chai
• Other Authors: Andrea Nanetti
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Visual arts and music
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/73630
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Lighting design for paintings in indoor settings, after having cleared conservation issues, is taking more and more into consideration the illumination parameters related to artist’s intentions, curatorial practices, and viewer experiences. Till recently, filtered or diffused natural daylight and incandescent lighting served as the most common lighting means for paintings with significant conservation issues. Today, Solid State Lighting (SSL) has close to no UV radiation resulting in a shift to newer LED lighting for museum use. Thus, lighting designers need to have a specific training to specialize in lighting design for paintings. This thesis started with an empirical investigation of the “Monza Method”. It consists of a checklist for lighting design of painted surfaces developed in 2008 by Arch. Francesco Iannone and Arch. Serena Tellini (Consuline Architetti Associati, Milan, Italy). Despite positive feedback from a general audience who has experienced lighting designed by the “Monza Method”, it is far more subject to the practitioner’s “instinctive appreciation of light conditions” rather than to a cogent methodology for standards of illumination related to the interpretation of the viewing audience’s appreciation. This thesis presents the results of an interdisciplinary research project (Physics of Light and Psychology, Art History and Aesthetic) that began in 2015 in the School of Art, Design and Media at NTU Singapore. The aims of the research on LED lighting conditions for paintings in a museum environment (as a key showcase for indoor settings) was to examine how changing values in spectral distribution curves within a fixed intensity and correlated colour temperature can affect preference ratings and perception of a painting under various lighting conditions. Through surveys conducted in Singapore, in collaboration with and endorsed by the Asian Civilizations Museum (ACM) and the National Gallery of Singapore (NGS), to 1.identify preference with relation to changing relative spectral distribution curves and 2. categorize specific variables that influence the viewers’ perceptive impression. The results of the interpretation of the data generated by these surveys have shown that: 1. individual paintings are viewed best under specific lighting conditions that are related to the painting’s medium, i.e. both the type of paint used (e.g., oil, ink) and the base to which it is applied (e.g., canvas, paper); 2. increases in the “Red” wavelengths of the spectral distribution curve correlate with a significant higher chance of altering preference for viewing the paintings as compared to increases in the “Blue” and “Green” wavelengths; 3. despite keeping physical brightness at a constant, perceived brightness changes drastically with the altering of spectral distribution curves (it is an example of a frequently discussed, but not often documented case of how the perception of brightness is not simply proportional to the intensity of the light). These research findings of human visual perceptions of change in spectral distribution curves, and the related interpretation of viewer behaviour, constitute a proof of concept for the need of a new approach to the standards of illumination in the lighting design for paintings in indoor settings. The lighting designer can be trained to explore more dynamic and science-driven ways to better enhance the empathic relationship of the viewer with the paintings, and show paintings “in new light”.