Both the first and the second reading looked back upon the history of the newly-developed art form – light. They revealed the tendency of light to move from being studied independently to being considered in a larger artistic environment, showed the diversity of ways and media to interact with light, and demonstrated how the art of light had developed rapidly in the past few decades. I found that in both two readings, the author seemed to emphasize the significance of light being displayed, exhibited or shown in the entire space where light itself existed, so that it could achieve greater success in the visual effects of the audience. The two articles also elaborated on the relationship between light and other art forms, and introduced how light, as a newly developed kind of art, gradually broke away from other time-honored art forms and formed its own characteristics. Another commonality of these two articles is that both of them looked into the media in the light art. They listed various artists and their progress in finding new materials or technologies to interact with light, and showed the pattern of the evolution of such media in the development history of light.
What impressed me the most in these two readings was that, though unbeknownst to each other, the writers both seemed to put emphasis on the interaction between objects, including that of light and the audience, light and its media and even different kinds of light. They appeared to be underlining the importance of treating light (or art) in a bigger context, considering other factors (the audience, the atmosphere…) as crucial as, if not more important than light itself. This reminded me that when creating my own projects in the future, I should take the environment of my work into consideration instead of only paying attention to the work itself as if it is isolated from the surroundings where it is placed.
When it comes to how the phenomenology of light and space is prevalent throughout the exploration of light as a medium by the various artists, what was discussed in the third reading related my thoughts with the video that I once watched, which was about the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The feature of such phenomenology is that it prioritizes the experiences of individuals, and argues that the aesthetics of people comes from their own experiences of relevant conditions. The influence of Merleau-Ponty to the artists was also mentioned in this article, which in my opinion may be part of the reason why this phenomenology became universal in this art form. When facing an art piece like this, the audience are combining their capacity to experience with their own introspection, and therefore forming their own perception of the artwork. And as the artists prioritized the feelings and experiences of their audience – “The artist embodies in himself the attitude of the perceiver while he works”, they tended to utilize this phenomenology as an approach to create “minimal” art pieces and thus awakening the audience’s perception of the aesthetics of light.
One artist that interested me in the Light as Sculpture medium was Dan Flavin, an American minimalist artist who played a prominent role in creating installations from commercially available fluorescent fixtures. He made use of fluorescent lights, an unimpressive object which could be easily found in the market, and kept exploring the relationship and boundaries between color, light and sculptural space, organically combining the fixtures with a bigger environment filled with colorful beams of light. Instead of limiting the viewpoints of his artworks, he installed the fixtures in a certain way so that there would be various ways of viewing his composition. This kind of approach reminded me of the role of experimental exploration that light and space can play in the creation of media arts projects. By experimenting with unconventional lighting techniques, immersive environments, or interactive installations, artists can challenge the audience’s senses and perspectives and therefore push the boundaries of perception and explore new forms of expression.
(Flavin, 1996)
The other artist in the Phenomenal whom I found impressing was Doug Wheeler, who was considered to be the pioneer of the “Light and Space” movement that took place in Southern California in the 1960s and 1970s. His work includes drawing, painting, and installations that feature the perception and experience of space, volume, and light. His primary goal, according to his critic John Coplans, was to “reshape or change the spectator’s perception of the seen world”. Wheeler’s medium was thus the perception of his audience rather than light, new materials or technology. As introduced in the article Phenomenal, “Doug Wheeler’s mature work also enacts a disappearance of the art object, which in his practice leads to an immersive environmental experience”. The transition in Wheeler’s work was from abandoning canvas to working directly with plastic and light, and the feature of the latter includes the hard edges of the fabricated pieces and the softly diffused light which can be found in the curved edges of the encasements. Wheeler said himself that he would like the spectators to move their steps and try to shift their perception of his work, which in my opinion indicates that his work requires a form of interaction between the audience and the art piece. Thus, I consider another role which light and space can play to be interactive experience, where the audience can be engaged and they can respond to environmental factors, creating immersive experiences that blur the boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds.
(Wheeler, 2011)
Light plays an important role in our daily life, and when it is creatively combined with the domain of art, it can generate unimaginable vitality which still has its unknowns waiting to be explored. By researching the history of light and space, I now have a better understanding of the history of this newly-developed art form, and I hope that in the future I can make full use of what I have learned to create my own projects.
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