Wellbeing
I was thinking about how, for instance, a very well-
known scientist, designer, and artist like Johannes
Itten attempted to paint a hospital differently
during the Bauhaus era so that patients would
feel better just by gazing at a different colour. So,
it was something that design began to consider,
having an impact on people. After “Luna Pro
Series” have people given feedback on how they
perceive light differently?
Yes, the answer is yes. And it’s always wonderful
when you see someone make a change and find
that their situation has improved thanks to it. And
one of the things I’m doing is going for examples
of people doing it, not necessarily because of
me, but because they felt the need. For example,
one person I collaborated with had worked on a
farm and realised that when he started working at
home, he felt really unhappy. So, he found himself
suffering from ‘Seasonal Affective Disorder’
(SAD), deciding to change the lights of his home.
Feedback is there, even when people around
me say, “Oh, yeah, I understand why” and start
spending a little more on the lights of a school
or hospital. It is extraordinary, but it does not
necessarily have to be very expensive. And I
realized that there are people all over the world
who have already realised how important light is
and what it can do for them, more than it can
do for their business. I looked at several areas:
I installed better quality lighting in a school with
language and hearing problems, and we found
that students and teachers could communicate
more clearly with everyone, simply by changing
the quality of light: students were more confident,
and teachers could improve their work. I spoke to
an industrialist, who spent a lot of money lighting
his new offices, and found that his employees
were so satisfied with the lighting that they invited
friends and relatives to say “ohh! Look where I
work!”. And again, at the nursing facilities I work
with, there has been a decline in falls, and the
waiting lists for people to move in have grown
as a result of the improved living conditions and
happier, more comfortable residents.
We have brought a different approach to the field
that complements the information we receive from
scientists. My job is to walk around with a torch
and say, “Look!”.
A lot of what I actually do is just celebrate people
who have made their choices and really see the
benefits in human terms, in environmental terms,
and because very often the energy saving creates
less light pollution. But also for companies, which
have more satisfied employees, hospitals with
happier patients, homes where children come
home early and tidy up their things better. It’s
a very simple thing to tell when you find people
doing it.
S.J.
SIMES is working to reduce the power of light
because it is interested in the wellbeing of
people. Simes wants to design the perfect light for
people’s wellbeing. We start to think of branding
as a cultural action, not just as something
commercial. Can private companies do more to
raise public awareness of light?
Yes, there are ways that manufacturers can start
making a difference in their business but also in
the world they want to be in. And one of these is
to think about the environment more broadly. Very
often lighting organisations are tempted to sell
light, but they are actually selling an environment,
they are selling a world. And this is one of the
problems: very often the initial cost seems to be
very high compared to a cheap alternative.
I’ve helped some people create a sort of bigger
scenario, to help their customers see the big
picture. That’s why this magazine will be so
wonderful: many big companies talk about these
things, but they don’t really do it: they don’t take
care of their surroundings or have a culture where
they expect people to respond to e-mails until late
at night. You have to do what you say, be credible,
and this creates respect and trust over time: there
is confidence in evidence. There are scientists and
organisations where you can get an answer. I am
thinking, for example, of light pollution, and how
it affects the ability to sleep, how it affects plants
and animals. If you want to make a statement
about the effect of your product, then it’s really
useful to have evidence about it, whether it’s your
own or someone else’s. And that’s why working
with young scientists, young curious minds is a
great thing to do. This is a valid way in which an
organisation can create a culture of excellence,
always testing the information it believes it
knows, confronting new ways of thinking, and
finding partners who want to do this: scientists
are increasingly aware of the need to outreach for
involvement in a kind of translational research.
Imagine that you have a precise idea of light in
your mind right now: if we were to compare it to
music, what kind of music would it be?
I think it would probably be something like
Bach, not just for its mathematical structure but
because it can be compared to a Rubik’s cube:
you can take it at different levels. You can take
it tonally, you can take it rhythmically, you can
take it geometrically. It is very intentional music
and yet the overall impression is very natural. The
wonderful thing about Bach is that there are young
musicians playing him. It’s a bit like Shakespeare,
you can make riffs with it.
I often work in many art schools and encourage
students to be aware of how light affects how
someone understands their work and this can be
an interesting trick in Instagram’s world.
S.J.
S.J.
Abstracts of the “Luna Project” campaign edit by Dr. Shelley
James for the knowledge of the lighting impact in everyday
wellbeing.
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