the importance of light

Light is overlooked as a powerful tool to our essence. In ancient civilizations, light has been the uniting religion for cultures. The sun god was the all powerful being that influenced everything. However, today we over look the importance of light. Today, light only serves the function of lighting up dark places, but light can be used to influence our mood, change perspective and represent philosophy.
Light is dependent upon the darkness that surrounds it. In theater, the actor’s face is under the spot light surrounded by darkness to center the audience’s attention. The darkness is just as important, yet civilization disregards the darkness as important. Light pours onto the night-time skies and covers the stars. The solution for this is to concentrate the light to where we need it, use enough light for what we need and to focus light so that none escapes into the atmosphere. The architect Rogier van Der Hiede shows the examples that architecture need to contain the light within its confines, street lamps need to light only the ground; thereby, he emphasizes using only light we need.
Bright light is ingrained in the culture of the western world. Fluorescent lights expose every spec of dirt in our homes. Westerners use very bright light to leave no surface hidden. Contrary to western believe in bright light, is the eastern civilization’s. Lamps in the eastern world are usually covered in brown paper to soften it and make light warmer and welcoming. The eastern world recognizes the necessity of darkness and incorporates that into their architecture. Thus, Westerners need to learn form the eastern civilization philosophy of light: recognize the importance of the darkness, create warm light and to jettison light thats not necessary.


http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/rogier_van_der_heide_why_light_needs_darkness.html