TH E LIG HT ISSU E
/ Light. /
It is a life-giving force and a universal source of meaning. The sun’s rays, our original light, provide warmth, food, and oxygen. So it was natural that the sun became our first deity, and light remains a dominant metaphor in the sacred texts of every major religion. But it is also a wellspring of beauty. Those waves, those oscillating electric and magnetic fields, give us color, texture, and shape. From the beginning, its harnessing yielded radical revolutions in the human experience. Fire enabled us to conquer the danger of night, but it also created a place to gather, to tell stories, to plan for what lay ahead. In many ways, it made us more human. Today, it remains a catalyst for social interaction: Soft lights are used to set the mood; flashing lights warn us to be alert; a porch light welcomes us home. And innovations in light continue to upend our presumptions and transform the way we live, with new insights generated using microscopes, telescopes, X-rays, and lasers. Yet much is still to change. Meet the artists, scientists, pop music fans, and urban planners who are reshaping the meaning of light.
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BY TONY REHAGEN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID ARKY
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march 2016 southwest 57
2/8/16 1:28 PM