Perception & Psychology

The space is primarily used for critiques, lectures and presentations. It is a space defined by four walls open to a vaulted ceiling containing opaque skylights. It is a medium sized, multifunctional space with walls used for pin-up space. It is a public space, certainly not private acoustically, as sound echoes in and out of the space easily. Looking up, there is a view of the superstructure: exposed beams and an HVAC system bisecting the ceiling plane. The interior is neutral with white walls and gray, concrete floor warmed slightly by wood accents.

The overall lighting quality is unable to be controlled since most of the light is an ambient, natural light coming from the overhead skylights. There are track lights around the perimeter of the room to spotlight the walls. On most days, these are washed out by the abundance of natural light, only casting a soft focal glow on the walls.

The shadows here are soft and without much contrast since the light source (the skylights) are multidirectional. The overall effect is that the lighting is too intense for most people. It does not function well for its intended purpose since there is minimal user-defined control over environmental factors.

The space leaves people feeling somewhat uncomfortable after long periods of time because there is no variation in the lighting- there are no lowly lit corners, shadows, or other instances where a person can seek out their own level of comfort, instead, on a bright day, they feel like they are under a microscope.

Here are a few images from the space in the gatewood Building that our group chose to analyze. I have not adjusted the exposure, so that you get a sense of the intensity of the light as it really is.

As individuals and then as a group, we rated the different qualities of the space on a scale from 1 to 7--the lighting and how it feels to be in the space. The space received an overall rating of 4--right in the middle. I suppose the bright open space is nice, but not in all applications.

light model

when given this project, i envisioned a mostly white form made of either foam core or matboard. i thought a simpler, more abstract model would allow for more lighting options and varied effects. well, maybe that's so. to my surprise, we took a 'leap of faith' with a pink box form and went to work on creating our own original luminaires with a small flashlight, candle lights, and LEDs. i think it turned out rather will (in spite of the pink!)

center | the more 'yellow' candle lights changed the milk-of magnesia pink to a more palatable hue (my opinion, of course).

glass beads/marbles were used to create 2 of the luminaires to be used with the candle lights. those are for effect/sparkle. in the far left image, the white LED luminaire created ambient lighting and very little change in color. on the right, the flashlight LED has a slight blue color, giving the space a more magenta hue. for texture, stockings & fleece were added to soften the space.

light model

light series 1

light series 1 depicts the changes of the sun's rays that enter into my home on the south side from late january through early may. all of the images were taken at or very close to 11am.



week 11 | 04.17.09 4 pm
it's not as bright at 4 pm as in the last study. the trees that flock the house have their leaves now, shading the house from the afternoon sun and making it a bit darker in the house.

week 11 | 04.17.09 10 am
a bright morning sun that's getting higher in the sky. the sunlight and shadows no longer show on the floor as they did in earlier weeks.


week 8 | 03.27.09 4 pm
shadows are softer, but it's consistently bright throughout the midday hours. the windows in the photo have southern exposure.

week 8 | 03.27.09 8 am
the back of the house is so dark compared to the strong beams of light streaming through the front windows that face east. shadows are much sharper in the morning.



week 6 | 03.10.09 11 am
the time has changed to daylight savings, so actually it's more like 10am. the light that was reflecting on the floor hasn't gotten there yet.


week 4 | 02.21.09 11 am
oddly enough, textures are more apparent/prominent in week 1 than week 4. what i didn't notice before, or realize, is that lower light conditions create more shadows and "drama" (duh, candlelight!) and darker crevices, thus creating more texture, i.e. the crevices in the wood floor and around wood trim are more prominent in week 1. by week 4, the sun's reflections on the floor are getting narrower, and the room(s) is becomin overall brighter because of the sun's higher position. the reflections & shadows are also much sharper than before.


week 2 | 02.08.09 11 am
by the 2nd week, the sun is a little higher in the sky, and is reflecting on the floor.

week 1 | 02.01.09 11 am
in this image, the sun is still low enough in the sky that no sunlight is on the floor. it is mostly on the walls.