Week 1: Road Ready Refraction

The other day I was heading back to my car in the underground parking structure at South Coast Plaza when some colorful lights caught my eye. Being underground in a structure dominated by grey concrete and dim, harsh lighting, bright reds and greens were really unexpected. So of course I rushed over and started snapping pictures of what turned out to be a shiny green Camaro parked next to a shiny red Mustang. Sunlight was filtering down into the garage in such a way that it reflected off of the two cars onto the wall and ceiling of the garage in some beautiful patterns. 

    This cool little phenomenon got me thinking about how lighting design intersects with scenic design. We certainly don't design in a vacuum and when we have to keep in mind not just what our lights look like on a bare stage, but how things will look after reflecting, refracting, and being diffused by various set pieces that a show may have. Besides something to always worry about when designing though, it also seems like a great opportunity to do some really interesting things by collaborating with set designers. 

   

    Of particular interest to me here is the way that, through reflection and refraction, we get a non-uniform shape without having to darken any part of the light, like a gobo would. In addition, the color itself is uneven, being more saturated in certain places and almost completely white in others. I suppose it might be possible, by using multiple lights to create this effect without bouncing the light off of anything, but it certainly wouldn't be easy to get it looking like above.
    I think that this type of lighting could look great both as pure art for artsines's sake or to create certain specific effects that would help to define a certain environment on the stage. This certainly lends itself to a surrealist design concept since it's just plain cool looking. As for practical use, certain movement effects like the reflection from a body of water, or the reflection of traffic passing by a wall could be well served by this type of lighting when combined with some moving or alternating fixtures. I'd love to explore the possibilities of this method in the future.