Volume 9. Issue 6. Nov/Dec 2016
n
Human responses to light: the new Masterclass
n What
lighting designers can deliver to the city festival 1
Editorial
Secretary Brendan Keely MSLL bkeely@cibse.org SLL Coordinator Juliet Rennie Tel: 020 8675 5211 jrennie@cibse.org Editor Jill Entwistle jillentwistle@yahoo.com Communications committee: Iain Carlile (chairman) MSLL Rob Anderson Jill Entwistle Chris Fordham MSLL Wiebke Friedewald Mark Ingram MSLL Stewart Langdown MSLL Gethyn Williams Linda Salamoun Bruce Weil All contributions are the responsibility of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the society. All contributions are personal, except where attributed to an organisation represented by the author.
Copy date for NL1 2017 is 23 November Published by The Society of Light and Lighting 222 Balham High Road London SW12 9BS www.sll.org.uk ISSN 1461-524X © 2016 The Society of Light and Lighting The Society of Light and Lighting is part of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, 222 Balham High Road, London SW12 9BS. Charity registration no 278104
Jill Entwistle jillentwistle@yahoo.com
Current SLL lighting guides SLL Lighting Guide 1: The Industrial Environment (2012) SLL Lighting Guide 2: Hospitals and Health Care Buildings (2008) SLL Lighting Guide 4: Sports (2006) SLL Lighting Guide 5: Lighting for Education (2011) SLL Lighting Guide 6: The Exterior Environment (2016) SLL Lighting Guide 7: Office Lighting (2015) SLL Lighting Guide 8: Lighting for Museums and Galleries (2015) SLL Lighting Guide 9: Lighting for Communal Residential Buildings (2013) SLL Lighting Guide 10: Daylighting – a guide for designers (2014) SLL Lighting Guide 11: Surface Reflectance and Colour (2001) SLL Lighting Guide 12: Emergency Lighting Design Guide (2015) SLL Lighting Guide 13: Places of Worship (2014)
Produced by
LATEST SLL Lighting Guide 14: Control of Electric Lighting (2016)
PRINT CONSULTANTS
Guide to Limiting Obtrusive Light (2012) Guide to the Lighting of Licensed Premises (2011)
Printed in UK
2
We are now in lighting festival season. From Vivid Sydney to London Lumiere, over the past few years the proliferation of city lighting festivals internationally has been extraordinary. On the whole they are a Good Thing, delighting the public, raising awareness of light’s possibilities, and crucially boosting local trade and municipal coffers. But there is perhaps a danger of culture as commodity. If you can’t afford to commission a starchitect to give you a suitably controversial but irresistible new art gallery, then maybe lots of coloured lights and awesome projections on the town hall will juice up the local economy. Lighting festivals are more meaningful and have greater longevity if they are seen in terms of a wider strategy and infrastructure. Lighting, like puppies, is not just for Christmas. Graham Festenstein has looked at
light from both sides now in this respect, having started LewesLight in his home town last year (see City in a new light, p7). It is an exemplar of what these events can do and what he believes lighting festivals should be about. It is very much centred on education, and that means much more than just basic awareness raising. Not only are local students involved but the event is embedded in the curriculum of some of the local college’s courses. There is also an associated lighting conference which both professionals and public are welcome to attend. There is an agenda to inform people about the environmental impact of lighting, and to consider its effects on the health and wellbeing of people. The event is also not simply grafted on and people are not just parachuted in. It is rooted in the town’s history, and participants have some connection with the place. It helps to ensure that its heritage is literally and metaphorically brought to light, and therefore, hopefully, handed on to future generations (passing the torchere?). The second SLL NoHL, held in York to coincide with that city’s lighting festival, reflected a similar aim by involving local schoolchildren. ‘The society worked with schools around York to create new ways of looking at and experiencing these places and spaces,’ said organiser Dan Lister, ‘I’m sure we inspired some lighting designers of the future.’
Secretary’s column
The Night of Heritage Light has pulled off a double by winning the event category of the darc awards! On 15 September the society’s members, volunteers and partners triumphed at the awards despite a great deal of high-calibre competition. Members of the core team, led by immediate past president Liz Peck, Simon Fisher, Juliet Rennie and myself, accepted the trophy on behalf of all involved (see News, p4). The trophy now sits alongside the Lighting Design Awards trophy in the display cabinet in the conference centre at CIBSE, Balham, and as this is a peerreviewed competition it’s all the more shiny and bright. The NoHL event is also shortlisted in the outdoor project of the year category of the Lux Awards (24 November) and has been entered into the Light Middle East Awards (which takes place on 2 November). When you receive this Newsletter, the society will have delivered the Night of Heritage Light II which took place in York from 24-29 October (see News, p4). This year the lighting professionals and local schoolchildren created installations as part of the Illuminating York Festival. We will report fully on the event in the January/February Newsletter. At the time of drafting this piece we are preparing to attend and exhibit at Light Middle East from 31 October2 November in Dubai. We will also host and deliver the inaugural Ready Steady Light competition in the region along with the exhibition organiser Messe Frankfurt. We’re very much looking forward to the event and meeting our members over the three days. Please do come along and say hello, and bring any queries you may have. It’s a great opportunity to update you on all the good things that the SLL and CIBSE are doing and have in the pipeline. Our thanks go to Malcolm Innes,
senior lecturer of the MA in lighting course at Edinburgh Napier University, and Cashel Brown of Nulty+ for their presentations at the recent Jonathan Speirs Memorial Lecture in Edinburgh. Before lecturing, Malcolm worked with Jonathan at Speirs and Major, and Cashel, who also studied under Malcolm, was the 2015 recipient of the Jonathan Speirs Scholarship fund. The brand new Masterclasses: Lighting Knowledge Series on the topic of Human Responses to Light started in Dublin on 20 October (see p5, and details are also on the website). We will be bringing the knowledge to you as we visit Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, Glasgow and London in the coming months so please do take a look at the website event page and book your place. The Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series will explore different lit environments in many sectors and deliver the information you need to be ahead of your competition. We will once again be attending LuxLive from 23-24 November at London ExCeL. Along with the Lighters’ Question Time from the new Lighting Knowledge Series we will again be hosting the Young Lighter of the Year finals. Good luck to all those shortlisted for the competition (see News, p4), and if you are visiting the show please do register on the LuxLive website, and come and see us on stand M40. On organisational matters, we would like to increase the size of the education and membership committee. It meets four times a year in the Balham office, and if you would be interested in joining and would like more details regarding the committee and its process then please do let me know. Finally, I was delighted to take part in the judging process for the Sparks (the children’s medical research charity) Design a Light competition sponsored by Future Designs. Congratulations to all those who entered and all who are shortlisted (see News p4), you have generated a great deal of money with every entry fee matched by Future Designs for a very worthy cause. The winner will be announced on 30 November at the annual Sparks Winter Ball and there will also be an auction of the manufactured products from the judges’ top three. Sparks is taking table bookings now so if you are in London on that evening please do take a look at the events page of the Sparks website (www. sparks.org.uk/). bkeely@cibse.org
Contents
Editorial 2 Secretary’s column
3
News 4 Human responses to light 5 Jeff Shaw introduces the new Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series on lighting for people The city in a new light 7 Festivals have benefits but lighting designers can deliver more, says Graham Festenstein Infinity and beyond 10 Concluding her series of IYL articles, Juliet Rennie discovers the secrets of the universe Totally sold on lighting 13 From millennium presentation to Masterclass presenter: Duncan Abbott on winning YLOTY For good measure 14 Iain Carlile singles out some of the latest online papers focusing mainly on metrics A different perspective 15 Peter Tregenza pays tribute to Prof Mike Wilson Cover: Enterprise Centre, University of East Anglia, lighting design by BDP, shortlisted for this year’s Lux Award for Office, Education and Healthcare Lighting Project of the Year
Events
For up-to-date information follow us on Twitter @sll100
16
3
NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...NEWS...
SLL scoops a second award
The Night of Heritage Light (NoHL), organised by the SLL in 2015, was named the Best Creative Lighting Event at the darc awards in September. This is the second trophy the event has picked up, having also won a Lighting Design Award in May this year. The darc awards are shortlisted by a panel of prominent lighting figures and their selection is subject to a peer vote, drawing on 1300 professional design agencies from around the world. ‘It’s very exciting to receive an award given by our peers in lighting, and a tremendous honour to be recognised by leading designers from around
the world,’ said SLL president Jeff Shaw. ‘I couldn’t be prouder of the society, everyone who took part and the talented teams of industry experts who made it all happen,’ said immediate past president Liz Peck, FSLL (pictured second right), who, along with other members of the organisational team (from left: Simon Fisher, MSLL, SLL coordinator Juliet Rennie and SLL secretary Brendan Keely, MSLL), collected the award on behalf of the SLL on the night. On 1 October 2015, the SLL lit nine UK Unesco World Heritage Sites in celebration of the International Year of Light, including Blenheim Palace, Giant’s
Bright ideas shortlisted NoHL goes to York
Soleil by Nitika Agrawal (pictured) is one of the six luminaire designs shortlisted for the Sparks Design a Light competition. Sponsored by lighting company Future Designs, the competition is designed to raise funds for Sparks, a charity for children’s medical research. Both the charity and Future are celebrating their 25th anniversaries. Other shortlisted designs are: Cell by Cundall, Cube by Arup, Dice by Vintage Playing Cards, Molly the Rainbow and Story Star by IA. The winner will be announced at the Sparks Winter Ball on 30 November at the Roundhouse in north London. The winning design will be manufactured and then auctioned at the event.
YLOTY finalists announced
The finalists for the 2016 Young Lighter of the Year award have now been selected. They will each give a 15-minute presentation at LuxLive on 24 November. The final four contenders are: Eleonora Brembilla (Applicability of climate-based daylight modelling); James Duff (A journey towards change); Aisha Robinson (A visible light communication scheme for use in accent lighting), and Sofia Tolia (Variable lighting levels for highways – a different approach).
4
The SLL staged a second Night of Heritage Light event on 24 October, this time focusing on one historic city, York. NoHL II concerned two sites: St Leonard’s Hospital and the Multangular Tower. The ruins of St Leonard’s date from 1137-1539AD. Founded soon after the Norman Conquest, it was believed to be the largest medieval hospital in the north of England. Even more ancient, the Multangular Tower (200-250AD) is sited at the west corner of what was once a Roman legionary fortress. As well as the professional designs and installations, the SLL also involved local schoolchildren in an event entitled NoHL: Pockets of Light. This formed part of the annual Illuminating York programme and involved creating a series of new lighting designs for key historical buildings and structures in the
Causeway and the Tower of London. The event was supported by more than 100 lighting professionals, representing some 50 organisations. The event beat London’s Lumiere 2016, Rome’s Colosseum Light Messages and San Francisco City Hall Centennial Celebration, among others. city: Multangular Tower and St Leonard’s Hospital again, as well as Exhibition Square and St Michael le Belfrey. SLL members ran workshops with schools in the area, encouraging the students to create their own schemes for the sites. These ideas were then put to a panel of judges, with the winning designs installed by lighting professionals as part of Illuminating York. ‘The society worked with schools around York to create new ways of looking at and experiencing these places and spaces,’ said organiser Dan Lister, who was a member of the core team in last year’s events. Pockets of Light featured as part of the main press night on 25 October, with each site viewed by the public for the duration of the Illuminating York event which ran from 26-29 October. More details on the event in the January/February Newsletter
On the lighter side... There’s no escaping the Tron reference. Cyclotron’s bike dispenses with spokes, wrapping space-grade carbon around a lightweight core structure, for a sci-fi cycling experience. The smart bike uses a Cyclo App that links with its 10 Bluetooth sensors, which enable all sorts of whizzy stuff, including the lighting. When it’s dark, a sensor automatically activates the LED wheel halos and also a red laser-lane display, so the rider is highly visible at night. The power comes from an integrated lithium-ion battery charged by an inbuilt dynamo (and/or a wall socket) and lasts
for eight hours. You can also carry your shopping inside the wheels apparently, but that seems just a tad prosaic. www.cyclotronbike.com
Events: Masterclass Masterclass 2013/14
Human responses to light Jeff Shaw introduces the new Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series, focusing on the relationship between light and people
The new series will also see a return to the Lighter’s Question Time session, giving delegates a chance to ask our panel of experts questions relating to the presentations or their experience of working within the lighting industry. The Masterclasses offer delegates the opportunity to attend a day of peer-reviewed CPD presentations, as well as excellent networking opportunities and I would thoroughly recommend attending one in your region.
THE SPEAKERS Chris Wilkes, Holophane Chris Wilkes will be discussing the effects that light has on the environment and wildlife, with reference to LG6: The External Environment. He will be drawing a comparison with the potential negative effects of light on human beings. He will also look at perceived and measured human responses to light, addressing claims that have been made about the effects of certain types of light, for example, the blue light hazard typically associated with LEDs. In relation to LEDs, he will also be discussing potential issues surrounding flicker, with reference to the 2016 Public Health England research report on Human Responses to LED Lighting Solutions. A physics graduate, Chris Wilkes has worked in the lighting industry for 14 years. Specialising primarily in the technical development and testing of luminaires, he currently manages the optical, photometric and laboratory side of the business in his role as technical manager at Holophane.
A past president of the SLL, Iain Macrae graduated in mechanical engineering before finding his way into lighting. Since starting with Thorn more than 22 years ago he has gained many years’ design and technical experience including designing a whole range of projects in most market sectors. He is Thorn’s head of global lighting applications management, working with a lighting design team to give product application advice for customers. He also tutors in the Thorn Academy of Light and is a director of ICEL (Industry Committee for Emergency Lighting).
t
As highlighted in my presidential address back in May, the lighting industry draws on a wide variety of backgrounds and expertise, including lighting designers, manufacturers, engineers, architects, interior designers and artists. The Masterclasses are designed to present the most current information on a topic relevant to the lighting industry and those within related industries. As a learned society, we also aim to provide public benefit through lighting education. The focus of the 2016-17 Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge series is Human Responses to Light. Quality lighting is key to our experience of a space, as well as our health and wellbeing. Within the new series, speakers will be discussing case studies and current research which relates to psychological, physiological, emotional, cultural and visual responses to light in a variety of environments.
Iain Macrae, Thorn Iain Macrae will begin his presentation by questioning certain beliefs within the construction industry, asking delegates to consider the true cost of construction versus people. He will then be referencing research into the relationship between light, human comfort and performance in interior environments. Having identified a specific space, he will outline 12 ways to make quality lighting easier, placing the focus on four key elements: illumination, modelling, colour and contrast. Focusing on lighting the task, space and faces of employees in a modern, connected and communicative environment, he will introduce ideas about reducing glare within the work environment and the need to consider flicker. His presentation will also offer a summary of the most recent research and guidance on this topic.
5
Masterclass
Helen Loomes has more than 30 years’ experience in lighting, starting out in a photometric laboratory. She is a fellow and council member of the SLL, and has now joined the BSI with the aim of supporting standards and global communication as the subject of HCL grows. She works with an international focus for Trilux Lighting as business development director and supports the Trilux Akademie. Dates and venues:
Roger Sexton, Xicato Roger Sexton’s presentation will examine smart lighting in gallery spaces, outlining how the right application can enhance the visitors’ experience of the space and the artwork itself. He will begin by outlining what smart lighting has to offer to gallery spaces, discussing light quality and sustained colour portrayal. He will discuss the importance of light quality within gallery spaces, looking at colour rendering and photochemical reactions, and considering ways in which light can be used to aid the preservation of artworks or artefacts. In relation to conservation management, he will be touching on the spectral sensitivity of the illuminated object and the preservation target, discussing how this could be achieved with the help of smart lighting systems. Other areas covered include how smart controls could lead to more sustainable lighting within gallery spaces, with maintenance and energy savings, and how they can enable peer-to-peer communication and motion sensing, setting the maximum amount of light for each artwork, for example, and a lower level of illumination when no motion is detected. He will also be demonstrating how to use this cutting edge technology. After completing a building services engineering degree at Liverpool University, Roger Sexton worked for Philips Lighting for 20 years mostly in the field of new product explorations. In 2008 he joined Xicato, an intelligent LED module manufacturer, where he works in a support role for lighting designers and product specification development.
20 October: Dublin The College of Anaesthetists of Ireland 22 Merrion Square Dublin 2 30 November: Leeds The Leeds Club 3 Albion Place Leeds LS1 6JL 26 January: Birmingham Venue TBC 23 February: Manchester The Lowry Pier 8, The Quays Salford M50 3AZ 30 March: Bristol M-Shed Princes Wharf, Wapping Road Bristol BS1 4RN 27 April: Glasgow The Lighthouse 11 Mitchell Lane Glasgow G1 3NU 18 May: London Venue TBC To book online visit www.sll.org.uk
6
Photography: Dave Morris
t
Helen Loomes, Trilux Helen Loomes will focus on human centric lighting. She will look at the adaptation of lighting to individual needs according to age, time of day and application among other factors, and also address common misconceptions. She will discuss the effects of light on wakefulness, body temperature and hormone production. Additionally, there will be information about the synchronisation of sleep in relation to circadian rhythms and the potential impact that dynamic lighting could have on this. She will also be asking whether there is a moral issue involved with altering peoples’ natural circadian rhythms with lighting in an attempt to make them more productive, or whether lighting could be used to provide balance for people who have altered their sleep patterns to fit around their work life. The presentation will also reference up-to-date research into shift working and recorded effects of artificial lighting.
Maggie’s Centre, Lanarkshire. Lighting design by Speirs + Major
Urban lighting
The city in a new light
Festivals have clear benefits but lighting designers can deliver something more, says Graham Festenstein, director and curator of LewesLight
I have no problem whatsoever with this model for a festival – after all, how can you criticise Lumiere London when it brought more than a million happy people out on to the streets to enjoy the city in a way we had never seen before? However, I do feel that as lighting designers we can deliver something more and different, and this is what we have set out to do with LewesLight. As designers we want to deliver something that looks good but should also fulfil a wider function and have a reason for existing other than for its own purpose. Arguably lighting festivals can do this by being part of a wider strategy for branding a town or city, in the way that Lyons pioneered the ‘City of Light’ concept in the 1980s and paved the way for many others to follow. Lyons probably still has one of the most successful festivals of light in the world. Lighting festivals are
t
Lighting festivals fulfil a range of functions – mostly promotional, cultural and economic. There is no doubt that they can provide a huge benefit to the town or city that hosts them, but can they deliver a wider function than the traditional objectives of most lighting festivals? As I write this I am in the midst of organising a festival myself so you might expect me to have fairly strong views on this subject. LewesLight is entering its second year and by the time you read this hopefully we will have delivered another successful event. Festivals take a number of forms but mostly consist of artist commissions and are predominantly intended to promote tourism and the night-time economy, as well as delivering spectacle and fun for the local community. Quite often there will be some community engagement, for example, artists working with local schools or community groups to deliver a piece.
7
Urban lighting
t
very effective in this way for generating tourism, iconic images and boosting the night-time economy, and Lighting Urban Community International (LUCI) has published useful research detailing how successful this approach is. Successful lighting festivals are often integrated into wider strategies be they tourism or regeneration. Sadly, an integrated approach to lighting within local authorities in the UK is getting much more difficult as councils downsize, contract out services and continue to receive savage budget cuts. The days of a lighting engineer in every council are now long gone, with often a civil or highways engineer managing a contract that has little scope for the flexibility required to facilitate a properly integrated lighting strategy for roads, public spaces and cultural events (other than Christmas lights). Often street lighting contracts actually dictate lighting that is inappropriate for public spaces in urban centres as commercial considerations have led contracts to be formed on the basis of the larger volume of road lighting luminaires across a county. Of course a commercial contractor is going to require additional funds to deviate from this, which in the current and foreseeable climate is in most cases not considered a priority. So the idea of an infrastructure being provided or maintained, or local authority involvement in the delivery of a festival diminishes every year. The other problem facing lighting festivals in the UK is that of funding. If local authorities do not have the funds to deliver these events – bearing in mind most other countries where
8
successful lighting events take place have a different culture in terms of spending public money on this type of thing – where does the money come from? In my own experience this is a huge problem. We do receive some money from the town council but as a parish council it has extremely limited funds so can give us relatively little. The district council provides us with plenty of support but is unable to contribute financially. As a design-led festival the Arts Council will not fund the festival directly and with the demise of the Design Council many years ago there is no public body championing and promoting design – which is considered a commercial business and should therefore be self-funding. There are other funders such as the Heritage Lottery Fund, Community Fund and others but mostly these are one-off grants so no good for sustaining an organisation over a number of years. LewesLight is a community event and as such its ethos precludes charging as we feel it should be free to all. This leaves us with an unpredictable future and in the long term the event will only be sustained by commercial sponsorship from local businesses. Our community ethos is very important to us. None of the professionals is paid and the event is delivered on a shoestring budget. Everyone associated with the event has embraced this ethos and the role call of businesses and individuals who have contributed in some way is massive, including a number of lighting designers, consultancies, and equipment manufacturers
Urban lighting
and suppliers. Most of the designers and artists involved with LewesLight have a local connection in some way, living here or nearby, having studied here or having grown up here. We feel that this direct connection to the local community is also very important. Our lighting designers come from the architectural, theatre, concert and performance fields, and we also work with artists in light and projection which adds another dimension to the festival. The other community engagement we feel is very important to us is education. We have collaborations with Sussex University and in future years we hope to extend this to Brighton University to work with undergraduates. We also deliver Stem workshops to local schools. However, our primary involvement in education is with the local further education college, Sussex Downs, with whom we have a very close relationship. The festival works with students aged 17 to 19, as well as Access students studying production arts, digital arts, art and design, tourism, marketing and history. Mostly studying BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council), this is a group that is under-represented when it comes to support from professionals in industry and a sector that is also grossly underfunded. The festival is now embedded in the curriculum of some of these courses and students’ work is assessed as part of their final grades. Engaging with these students provides the festival with a real legacy, helping to widen horizons, inform and contribute to the academic success of these young people, some of whom will go on to work in our or allied industries. As Lewes is also within the Dark Sky Reserve of the South Downs National Park we aim to educate the public in the responsible use of light and the potential impact of lighting on the environment, wildlife and, of course, the health and wellbeing of people. From a professional perspective we are also very interested in the role lighting has in urban design
As designers we want to deliver something that looks good but should also fulfil a wider function and have a reason for existing other than for its own purpose and how lighting events can be used as a tool for public engagement and to raise awareness of its importance in the public realm for our communities. So what really makes us different, you may ask? As designers our contribution is to deliver an evocative setting and backdrop to a narrative and storytelling within a town that has a fascinating, complicated and truly unique history. Working closely with history professionals, local historians, residents and the local college we not only produce illuminated scenes but a network of guided walks that use the lit spaces and buildings to modify the viewers’ perception of places they thought they understood, and facilitate the telling of stories from the town’s past and that of its people. By engaging with young people we also hope to pass on some of this heritage, which is in danger of being lost, and to hopefully inspire a new generation of people interested in history. In fact I wonder if what we are doing should even be called a festival of light at all? The second LewesLight took place from 10-16 October, and included a conference and various activities for schools and families, culminating in installations around the town for the last three days of the event
Previous page, opposite and above: installations by Karen van Creffeld (Lewes Castle) and Nulty+ at LewesLight 2015
9
IYL closing ceremony
Credit: Yury Dmitrienko/elements of image supplied by NASA
Infinity and beyond
Viewed by Hubble: the Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula, a young open cluster of stars in the constellation Serpens
Concluding her series of articles examining topics covered in the IYL closing ceremony, Juliet Rennie discovers the secrets of the universe 10
There was an almost tangible atmosphere of anticipation ahead of Nobel Laureate Dr John C Mather’s presentation, Learning about the Universe. Dr Mather is the senior astrophysicist and senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and scheduled for launch in two years’ time). Focusing his research on infrared astronomy and cosmology, Dr Mather was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (2006) for leading
IYL closing ceremony
The Hubble Palette Hubble’s cameras record light from the universe with special electronic detectors. These detectors produce images of the cosmos not in colour, but in shades of black and white. Finished colour images are combinations of two or more black-and-white exposures to which colour has been added during image processing. The colours in Hubble images, which are assigned for various reasons, aren’t always what we’d see if we were able to visit the imaged objects in a spacecraft. We often use colour as a tool, whether it is to enhance an object’s detail or to visualise what ordinarily could never be seen by the human eye. Colour in Hubble images is used to highlight interesting features and is added to the separate black-and-white exposures that are combined to make the final image. The process is equal parts art and science. Light from astronomical objects comes in a wide range of colours, each corresponding to a particular kind of electromagnetic wave. Hubble can detect all the visible wavelengths of light plus many more that are invisible to human eyes, such as ultraviolet and infrared light. Astronomical objects often look different in these different wavelengths of light. To record what an object looks like at a certain wavelength, Hubble uses special filters that allow only a certain range of light wavelengths through. Once the unwanted light has been filtered out, the remaining light is then recorded. Hubble’s many filters allow it to record images in a variety of wavelengths of light. Since the cameras can detect light outside the visible light spectrum, the use of filters allows scientists to study ‘invisible’ features of objects – those only
t
On joining NASA, Dr Mather described how he had approached them to say that although his original thesis project had failed, he thought that they should give him another try, in outer space. As a result, Dr Mather was one of two lead investigators for COBE. In orbit from 1989-1994, COBE was used to create maps illustrating the difference in brightness of the detected cosmic background, essentially creating a map of the universe as it was when it became transparent at the age of around 390,000 years. Theses maps took hundreds of millions of images which were then averaged out. Most of the darker spots that were detected are a result of cosmic dark matter which Dr Mather explained was the reason why we, and the universe as we understand it, are here today and, quoting Stephen Hawking, said that they may be the most significant scientific discovery of all time. These dark spots then enabled Dr Mather to consider the physics of the map. As the audience looked on slightly bemused, Dr Mather casually observed that these maps do not show the centre or the edge of the universe, as it is expanding into itself from no specific point and, in fact, there isn’t even a first moment of the universe. Dr Mather went on to discuss the Alma Atacama Large Millimetre Array, in Chile, which detects proto planetary discs, giving insight into the formation of a planet from the dust surrounding a star, and what is planned to be the world’s largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, which is made up of antennae spread across Australia and South Africa. Dr Mather moved on to discuss the importance of telescopes in space, allowing scientists to observe the Earth’s turbulent
Credit: Albert Barr
NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) team, measuring cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, which is residual heat from the recombination stage of the Big Bang. CMB is essentially the oldest light in the universe. Dr Mather began by giving some background of the history of telescopes, beginning with Leonardo da Vinci’s original design for what is said to be the first reflected telescope, through to discussing the incredible accomplishments of the US solar astronomer George Ellery Hale (1868-1938) in developing four of the largest telescopes in the world. In 1929, Edwin Hubble confirmed the expansion of the universe using a telescope, as well as estimating the value of the rate of expansion. Dr Mather pointed out that the universe was seven times older than Hubble originally estimated, a calculation subsequently corrected by Albert Einstein. In highlighting the importance of telescopes and radiotelescopic technology, Dr Mather went on to discuss how the Jodrell Bank Telescope, established by Sir Bernard Lovell, was used to identify the Einstein Ring, where the light from a galaxy or a star is formed into a ring by gravitational lensing created by another extremely large mass, for example, a galaxy or a black hole. Additionally, the Green Bank radio telescope enabled the discovery of pulsars; a magnetic field in the Orion Molecular Cloud; a hydrogen superbubble nearly 23,000 light years away, and the most massive neutron star detected to date. The Arecibo Observatory and radio telescope mean that it is now possible to map other planets, leading to the discovery of a volcano on the surface of Venus and the ability to monitor its activity.
North American and Pelican Nebulae: processed in the Hubble Palette to reveal detail or visualise what the human eye can’t see
visible in ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths. Choosing a particular filter reveals an image of the galaxy taken through that filter – that is, in a specific wavelength range. Many fullcolour Hubble images are combinations of three separate exposures – one each taken in red, green and blue light. When mixed together, these three colours of light can simulate almost any colour of light that is visible to human eyes. Edited extract from www.hubblesite.org
11
Credit: Vadim Sadovski/elements of image supplied by NASA
IYL closing ceremony YLOTY
The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit above the Earth
12
atmospheres of distant planets and their chemical composition by their orbit around a star. This enables us to identify whether there is water under the surface of a planet. With regard to the future of astronomy, Dr Mather briefly touched upon the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. LIGO first detected them in September 2015. By this point, although still inspired by the future of space exploration and discovery, and especially the role that lightbased technologies have to play in this, we were all just a bit overwhelmed by these cosmic possibilities.
Credit: Zack Frank
t
atmosphere and the elements of it which cannot be seen from the ground, such as radioactive or infrared rays. Using a collection of images from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers were able to develop the Hubble Deep Field covering a small region of the constellation Ursa Major back in 1995. Due to the high concentration of young galaxies within the field, it has become a marker within the study of the early universe. Giving a brief history lesson of the stars and distant galaxies, Dr Mather discussed the Crab Nebula, which exploded in 1054 and was recorded by Chinese astronomers. This star was so bright that it could be seen in the daytime and its evolution is significant as it teaches us about the factors that make life possible. For example, the gases produced in these explosions may inform us about the formation of our atmosphere. Additionally, among the Orion Nebula Mosaic are the central stars forming Orion’s Sword. This is a place where stars have been born and continue to be born today, providing further information about how the Earth was formed. The James Webb Space Telescope, which Dr Mather is currently working on, is named after one of the founders of NASA. It is an infrared telescope, which means that it has to be kept cold by shielding it from the sun, so that its temperature does not interfere with what it is trying to detect. The shield alone is roughly the size of a tennis court. It is scheduled for launch in October 2018 from French Guyana. The telescope itself will need to be unfolded from the rocket in a specific order, a process which will be carried out by remote control at a distance of roughly five million kilometres away from Earth. It will then take two months for it to cool sufficiently for it then to be focused. The telescope is currently being tested within a vacuum tank which includes refrigeration, allowing them to test the cooling and focusing systems. By using infrared telescopes, Dr Mather explained that we are now beginning to get an insight into the chemistry of stars, the
Discoveries made by the Green Bank Telescope include pulsars; a magnetic field in the Orion Molecular Cloud, and the most massive neutron star detected to date
YLOTY: where are theyYLOTY now?
Totally sold on lighting From millennium presentation to Masterclass presenter: Duncan
Abbott on winning his YLOTY award in 2000 and where it has led Winning YLOTY raised my profile and opened up new possibilities in my career. It was later in 2000 that I decided to move into a sales role and joined Wila Lighting, still my current employer. Wila has always been good at promoting training and supported me on the LIF Advanced Certificate course in 2002 where I received The Holophane David Currie Award for best overall student. In terms of industry-relevant academic qualifications the next logical step was to enrol on the MSc course in Light and Lighting at UCL, which I began in 2003 as a part-time student, again with Wila’s support. I passed the MSc in 2004 and received a commendation from the board of examiners for my final project, a development of the research I began for the YLOTY. More recently, between 2011 and 2013, I was a speaker for the SLL Masterclasses while Wila was a sponsor. Initially a stand-in for Peter Le Manquais, our group technical director, I went on to write the presentations and deliver them all over the UK, which was a great experience. I directly trace this opportunity back to YLOTY and being recognised for my presenting skills over a decade earlier. While I have been in a sales role now for more than 16 years, I consider myself a lighting professional first and foremost, and would not be interested in applying my sales skills to any other industry. I am now specification sales director at Wila and manage a team that promotes lighting products to key lighting designers, consulting engineers and architects in and around London.
Photography: Philip Durrant, London
Having graduated from Coventry University with a BEng Honours in electrical and electronic engineering, I enthusiastically tried for any and all jobs that I was qualified to do. I didn’t even know I had applied to a lighting company at the time, as the advert was through an agency, but I successfully landed a position as an applications engineer at Urbis Lighting. Like most people in our industry, I hadn’t even dreamed of working in lighting but as my aspirations had already been downgraded from astronaut to engineer, then why not a lighting engineer? Back in 1999 when Pulp’s millennial anthem was still about the future, it was suggested to me that I should enter the Young Lighter of the Year for 2000. I had never heard of the competition and wasn’t even a member of the SLL. David Burton, then general manager of Urbis Interior Lighting, handed me some information and explained that it would help raise my profile, and be good experience. The requirement to submit an original written document on any lighting topic was initially problematic. I had no relevant academic paper to fall back on and so, with assistance from David and Urbis, I embarked on a research project to study the relative merits of task lighting versus regular array lighting in an office environment. We developed a concept floorstanding luminaire, with a glare-controlled asymmetric downlight optic and separately controllable uplight element. We set up the CFL task light (no LEDs then) at the side of a desk in a single occupancy office with four recessed 600mm x 600mm fluorescent fittings. Company employees tried working under the different configurations of lighting and then answered a questionnaire on their preferences. After submitting my written report I received confirmation that I had made it through to the YLOTY finals. While I had some limited public speaking experience this was still a rather daunting prospect and I set to work preparing my presentation as a summary of my research findings. The competition format back in 2000 was slightly different in that there were two prizes and not necessarily an overall winner. I was fortunate enough to be awarded the prize for best presentation, sponsored by The Worshipful Company of Light Mongers. The prize for the best written paper went to Chris Jackson, who submitted his Bartlett MSc thesis on daylighting with the support of Peter Raynham, an impressive piece of research carried out using UCL’s artificial sky facilities.
5 New Street Square, London: scheme GIA Equation, lighting Wila
13
LR&T essentials
For good measure
Iain Carlile singles out some of the latest online papers focusing mainly on metrics Four of the most recently published Lighting Research and Technology online papers look at the subjects of colour, luminaire efficacy, mesopic sensitivity and whiteness metrics. Kahnh and Bodrogi’s paper considers colour preference, naturalness, vividness and colour quality metrics with reference to the assessment of make-up products. Their experiment investigated observers’ subjective assessments of reddish cosmetic products. The results were analysed and modelled with a novel colour quality formula, combining the colour fidelity index and a measure of chroma change. The authors found that the new colour quality formula supports multi-LED light sources with moderately accentuated local spectra maxima to enhance object chroma over a moderate range. The experiments were conducted using 3200K light sources at an illuminance of 500 lux. The authors confirm that a range of CCTs are in progress. Ma et al present a study of whiteness metrics. Whiteness is an important characteristic of a surface’s colour, and is of great importance in the industrial sector where the whiteness appearance of products such as paper, fabrics and clothing is an important parameter considered during manufacture. The authors note that the widely used CIE whiteness metric has limitations. These are due to surfaces which have a chromaticity falling outside of the CIE metric boundary still being perceived as white. Also the metric only considers CIE Illuminant D65 and should therefore not be applied under other lighting conditions or to other light sources. The authors undertook a psychophysical study which looked at the whiteness of 50 different samples (12 paper and 38 textile) under 12 different lighting conditions with different CCT and UV radiation values. Using the experiment results, an optimised whiteness metric is presented, which can be used under different lighting conditions and to help guide the spectral engineering of LED light sources. In their paper, Rea and Bierman propose a new rationale for setting light source luminous efficacy requirements. They note that the V(λ) luminous efficiency function, used for the definition of lumens and therefore regulating minimum luminous efficacy functions (lumens per watt), has a long wavelength spectral bias with respect to the spectral sensitivity of the human retina. When used in luminous efficacy regulations, the long wavelength bias of V(λ) penalises many of the benefits of short wavelength light (for example, scene brightness, colour rendering, circadian regulation and off-axis detection), argue the authors. They propose the use of the U(λ)
14
universal luminous efficiency function to remove the need for ad-hoc adjustments to regulations for ‘cool’ light sources and minimise the wasted electric power imposed by regulations based on the V(λ). The authors also hope that the proposed switch to U(λ) would encourage luminaire manufacturers to produce light sources that efficiently provide multiple benefits to users. Finally, Englisch et al conducted an experiment to investigate mesopic threshold detection sensitivity for varying viewing conditions. Examining different background luminances and large fields of view in the mesopic range, they suggest two different fields in which their findings could be applied. First is the night-time driving of vehicles, where LED headlamps could be optimised for hazard detection of objects in the periphery of vision when driving through a bend. Second is cinematographic projections, whereby post-processing of film could be optimised to enhance the narrative effect by revealing story-critical objects located on the periphery of a large screen Iain Carlile, MSLL, is an associate of DPA Lighting
Observer in psychophysical study seated in front of the viewing cabinet (Evaluation of whiteness metrics, Ma et al)
Lighting Research and Technology: OnlineFirst In advance of being published in the print version of Lighting Research and Technology (LR&T), all papers accepted for publishing are available online. SLL members can gain access to these papers via the SLL website l Colour preference, naturalness, vividness and colour
quality metrics, Part 3: Experiments with make-up products and analysis of the complete warm white dataset TQ Khanh and P Bodrogi l Evaluation of whiteness metrics S Ma, M Wei, J Liang, B Wang, Y Chen, M Pointer and MR Luo l A new rationale for setting light source luminous efficacy requirements MS Rea and A Bierman l Mesopic increment detection sensitivity, Part I: Phenomenological analysis D Englisch, C Schiller, P Bodrogi and TQ Khanh (Prof Dr-Ing habil)
Obituary
A different perspective
Peter Tregenza pays tribute to Prof Mike Wilson who died in September
He was both compassionate and practical and, above all, he was able to bring out people’s real talents
When asked his profession Mike would reply, ‘building physicist’. He had the viewpoint of a scientist and that made him invaluable as a colleague. He could look at buildings with a perspective different from those of the architects and engineers that he worked with. Mike went to Cambridge, reading natural sciences and chemical engineering, then to University College, London, where he gained an MSc in environmental engineering and design. In due course he became a chartered engineer, a member of the Institute of Acoustics, of CIBSE and the SLL. In 1987 he was appointed senior lecturer in architectural environmental science at the University of North London (now London Metropolitan University). There he remained for 23 years, during which time he was promoted to reader and subsequently professor. He was director and joint founder of the Low-Energy Architecture Research Unit (Learn). Under his control, Learn became internationally known as a centre for the study of sustainable architecture. It was supported by funded research from the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), the Sports Council, the British Council and the European Commission. In all there were 25 European projects with a total value of more than £2m. Mike published more than 70 papers, lectured throughout Europe, in South America and South Africa. He was honorary adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a consultant he advised planning authorities in several European countries on daylight and planning in urban areas. In 2010 he moved to the University of Westminster as principal research fellow in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. Mike’s personal research was focused on acoustics for the first half of his career and daylight for the second half. He was a founder member of the Daylight Group and was its chairman for several years. He was in that position when the group reached its 10th birthday and celebrated by taking the Eurostar to Paris, visiting the Maison de Verre, and having a very civilised lunch. Those who knew Mike as a colleague would recognise this list of achievements as the summary of an outstanding career. But they would say that the most important characteristic is missing. Mike had, more than anyone I know, the gift of being a friend. Throughout Europe there are teachers, researchers and students who had kept in touch with Mike for years after completion of formal research collaboration, and who will now feel his death as a personal loss. He was both compassionate and practical and, above all, he was able to bring out people’s real talents. Learn’s research unit became a place where those with a problem – students and staff – found support. Often they were not only helped in their particular needs, but became part of the team and added to its strength. After a long struggle with illness, Mike died at home surrounded by his family on the afternoon of Tuesday 6 September, 2016. Peter Tregenza is professor emeritus at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield
15
EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS...EVENTS
2016 9 November Fundamental Lighting Course (Organised by the ILP) Venue: Regent House, Rugby jo@theilp.org.uk 13-15 November IALD Enlighten Europe Venue: Prague Marriott Hotel, Prague www.iald.org
23-24 November LuxLive 2016 and lightspace dot London (including SLL Young Lighter of the Year final and Masterclass event) Venue: ExCeL London http://luxlive.co.uk 24 November Lux Awards 2016 Venue: InterContinental London: The O2 www.luxawards.co.uk 29 November How to be Brilliant (Organised by the ILP) Speaker: Jonathan Rush, Hoare Lea Venue: Marshalls Design Space London EC1 www.theilp.org.uk/brilliant 30 November Masterclass, Lighting Knowledge Series: Human Responses to Light Venue: The Leeds Club, Leeds www.sll.org.uk 8-11 December Fête des Lumières (Lyons Festival of Lights) Location: Lyons, France www.fetedeslumieres.lyon.fr/en
2017 26 January Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series Human Responses to Light Venue: Birmingham www.sll.org.uk 7 February CIBSE Building Performance Awards Venue: Grosvenor House Hotel, London www.cibse.org/building-performance-awards 7-9 February Light School at the Surface Design Show (Supported by the ILP and organised by Light Collective) Venue: Business Design Centre, London www.surfacedesignshow.com/light-school
Courtesy of ExCeL London
17-18 November CIBSE Building Performance Conference and Exhibition Venue: QE2 Centre, Westminster, London www.performanceinbuildings.co.uk/
23-24 November: LuxLive at ExCeL London (including the YLOTY final)
23 February Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series Human Responses to Light Venue: The Lowry, Manchester www.sll.org.uk
Lighting Masterclasses: Masterclass: The Lighting Knowledge Series is kindly sponsored by Holophane, Thorn, Trilux and Xicato. For venues and booking details: www.sll.org.uk
30 March Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series Human Responses to Light Venue: M-Shed, Bristol www.sll.org.uk 4-9 April Euroluce Venue: Fiera Milano, Milan www.salonemilano.it 27 April Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series Human Responses to Light Venue: The Lighthouse, Glasgow www.sll.org.uk 4 May Lighting Design Awards Venue: London Hilton Park Lane http://awards.lighting.co.uk 9-11 May Lightfair International Trade Show and Conference (Organised by the IALD) Pre-conference: 7-8 May Venue: Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia www.lightfair.com 18 May Masterclass: Lighting Knowledge Series Human Responses to Light Venue: London www.sll.org.uk
LET Diploma: advanced qualification by distance learning. Details from www.lightingeducationtrust.org or email LET@cibse.org CIBSE Training: various courses across the whole spectrum of lighting and at sites across the UK. Full details at www.cibse. org/training-events/cibse-cpd-training LIA courses: details from Sarah Lavell, 01952 290905, or email training@thelia.org.uk
For up-to-date information follow us on Twitter @sll100