Luminous Talks: Harnessing the Uncertainty of Light
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Reporting by Chris Beatty; photography by Jessica Miller unless otherwise noted
Last Friday at Parsons the New School for Design, Derek Porter, Director of the School’s Lighting Design Program, and Matthew Cobham of Philips brought together a diverse group of researchers, architects, and lighting designers to discuss the nuanced juncture between natural and man-made lighting.
“Luminous Talks: Nature and Man-Made” kicked off with a look at research into the fundamentals of light perception, presented by Dr. Raymond Van Ee, a professor of neurology and a research fellow at Philips whose work examines the importance of light in creating the optimal conditions for maintaining attention.
Clockwise from top left: Matthew Cobham; Raymond Van Ee; Davidson Norris; George Craford
Next, we heard from George Craford, an early pioneer of LED lighting technology who worked with Nick Holonyak to bring LED’s from industrial switchboards to car headlights, a feat once described as impossible by the Wall Street Journal. Craford explained that while ‘a photon is still a photon’ no matter where it comes from, there are a couple of key ways to quantify the quality of light. The main system in use today is the Color Rendering Index (CRI) which measures the reflection of a light source as it bounces off 15 unique color chips. The CRI of an incandescent light bulb is a shown by broad curve which reaches its peak with the reflection of yellow light. The CRI of fluorescent lighting is spiked with multiple peaks, its phosphors were actually engineered maximize its results on this score.
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