VIRTUAL: Applying Education

Abstract

Can we design dynamic lighting environments that consider wellbeing? How can educators frame teaching immersive light art in this context? In this paper I would like to address these questions through student responses to The 2022 Immersive Arts for Health Student Design Competition by The Jefferson Center of Immersive Arts for Health. I will examine winning submissions in the competition and the education frameworks that were applied in the correlating courses leading to the competition entries. The competition brief sets a challenge to generate light environments in medical contexts that may improve human health and calls for immersive light installation proposals, based on evidence-based research that may positively impact patient health. The top three winning entries were constructed as light environments at HOT•BED Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, side by side with works developed by light artists. As an architect, light artist and architecture educator, I have been developing a lighting seminar that introduces students to the potential of working with light as a material. As a response to the competition, I worked with a group of students to merge aspects of my lighting seminar studies with light and health research. Blending an academic ­­­­­­literature review of evidence-based research along with experimental light explorations to respond to the competition challenge. In this paper I would like to explore ways of merging aspects of light and health research with spatial light concepts, and assess the tools in which different educators in the field create frameworks for such exploration.