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NORDIC LIGHT & COLOUR
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art history, perception psychology or design theory. The digital
journal Colour:
Design & Creativity
is, as can be understood
from its name, more orientated towards the aesthetic and
experience creating use of colour. From 2012 it has been taken
over by AIC and its new name is
Journal of the International
Colour Association
. Journals such as
Lighting research and
technology, Leukos and Journal of Light & Visual Environment
deal with light issues mainly from the viewpoint of illumina-
tion technology, but also include articles on design and visual
experience.
In recent years there have been some international confer-
ences that have explicitly focused on both colour and light (Ze-
nnaro 2010; Schindler & Cuber 2011), and there have also been
published books in several languages, with both colour and
light in their titles (Valberg 2005; Fridell Anter 2006; Hårleman
2007; Zennaro et al. 2010; Bachmann 2011).
Research themes dealing with colour or light
Books, articles or conference presentations that deal with both
colour and light only seldom discuss their spatial interaction.
Instead some other themes are prevalent:
- Physiological and psychological aspects of colour and light
perception.
- The colour rendering properties of light sources
- The non-visual effects of light
- Artistic work that uses coloured light
- Description and/or analysis of how colour and/or light have
been used in specific architectural contexts.
The rapid development within neurological science has led
to an increased interest for research on the visual system as
such. Current research treats the basic physiological founda-
tions for human perception of colour, light, visual contrasts and
space. Starting from this, in combination with photometry and
colorimetry, scientists search for patterns that can enhance
the understanding of our perceptual abilities and their pre-
conditions, possibilities and limitations (Valberg 2005; Ronchi
2007b; Ronchi 2007a).
The colour rendering properties of light sources has become
an important field of research during the last few years. There
have been international agreements to decrease the use of
traditional incandescent light bulbs in favour of new light
sources that use less energy. The human visual sense, and
thus our colour vision, has developed during millions of years
under sunlight, and like the sun, the incandescent lamps emit
radiation including all those wavelengths that can evoke visual
perception. Energy lamps and light emitting diodes (LED)
can, instead, be constructed to fulfil specified demands in an
optimal way, and their radiation can be dominated by certain
wavelengths whereas others are almost or totally missing.
Thus it is essential to understand how the chosen wavelength
combination affects what we see and what other effects it has
on human beings.
The technological innovations have drawn the attention to
already known weaknesses in the methods for determining
colour rendering properties in a way that enables compari-
sons between light sources of different types. Many published
studies deal with the perception of coloured surfaces under
the new light sources. There have also been several attempts
to find colour rendering measurements that meet the new
situation better than the CRI (Ra) that uses incandescent light
as a reference. Within CIE, the technical committee 1:69 has
worked with the issue of colour rendering but has not been
able to agree on a suggestion for new criteria and measuring
methods (Davies 2011).
The CRI (Ra) is a technologically based measurement that is
primarily used within the light source industry and in the plan-
ning of illumination. The issue of light’s importance for colour
perception and experience has also been investigated through
visual observations, often with methods belonging to the fields
of art or design. Combinations of light sources, pigments and
dyeing substances have been tested to give such effects that
are wanted in specific situations. Such studies sometimes in-
clude the ambitions to use metameric effects in creative ways.
One large field of research deals with what is called the non-
visual effects of light. The wavelength composition of radia-
tion affects people’s health and daily rhythm in ways that are
not necessarily tied to the visual qualities of light. Within CIE,
division 6 (director Ann Webb) works with photobiology and
photochemistry and has published a lot of studies and reports.
Rikard Küller, late professor at the unit of environmental psy-
chology at Lund University, Sweden, is one of the authors of an
extensive bibliography over this research field (Küller & Küller
2001). Also see Govén et al. 2007 and Küller 2008.
The possibility to provide illumination throughout all 24 hours
has had profound influence on culture and society, and the new
options to design light for specific effects open for effects that
are yet to be fully understood. These issues are discussed from
ethnological and sociological perspectives in e.g. Garnert 1993,
Brox 2003 and Barbara 2010.
The light emitting diodes offer completely new possibilities to
create differently coloured light, and this is used in both exte-
rior and interior contexts. Consequently new questions arise: