In search of the measurable, the immeasurable & the elusive experience of light

Drawing on investigations into how light shapes the different layers of spatial experience, this project explores the perceptual and emotional qualities of luminous environments. The work unfolds at the intersection of lighting design practice and scientific disciplines such as perceptual psychology, sensory science and environmental psychology, and between that which can be measured and that which can only be experienced.Light quality is predominantly defined through physical metrics. The absence of established concepts and methods for describing perceived light quality means that these dimensions can neither be communicated, specified nor evaluated in a systematic way. This has consequences for how our shared light environments are shaped and for how light is understood beyond the boundaries of its own discipline.Vision provides us with visual information about the world around us, and light is a prerequisite for this process. Light, understood as radiation, can be measured and described using the tools of physics. Yet light, understood as the experience that arises when this radiation reaches the retina, is a sensory phenomenon; relative, contextual and complex. Within this process, much of the perceived atmosphere is also formed, emerging through the interplay between external conditions and subjective interpretation.The lighting designer operates within this experiential layer, where design intention establishes the framework or ground against which the viewer, occupant or user responds. The project also examines light as narrative: how its articulation relates to perceptual qualities, and how light may function as a form of wordless communication.The project began within scientific research and environmental psychology and concludes within artistic research oriented towards lighting design practice. To work deliberately within the tension between these knowledge traditions has been a guiding principle throughout. The ambition of the work is to contribute to an integrated understanding of the measurable and the immeasurable, and thereby to advance both lighting design and lighting research as fields of knowledge.