The scope of light design is wide-ranging. It can be applied to elevate the look of everything from artworks to homes. Here is a list of books on light design, which throw light on traditional and innovative approaches in the field.
Ignite: The Art of Lighting Design Alliance
Author: Lighting Design Alliance
This book is for architects, architecture students and design enthusiasts. Lighting Design Alliance (LDA) is a design firm in California, USA, known for integrating lighting into the architecture of corporate offices, hotels, museums and even street lights. The book is a showcase of their best works, breaking down how their designers found innovative ways to use light to enhance the experience of a setting. You can find striking photographs of camouflaged light sources, natural light, and ornamental light installations they have used in some of their projects.
Lighting Your Home: Inside and Out
Author: Jane Cornell
This serves as a guidebook to decorate your home with a mix of lamps, bulbs, and other lighting fixtures. It covers instructions to create lighting schemes for both the indoor and outdoor spaces (like the yard). The first edition of the book focuses on selecting lights based on practicality and aesthetic appeal while the second edition covers steps and diagrams to turn your dream house into a reality.
Lux: Lamps and Lights
Authors: Robert Klanten and K Bolhoefer
The advent of energy-efficient light sources has revolutionised the field of light design. It has inspired artists to come up with new silhouettes of lamps to complement modern spaces. The book boasts a collection of eclectic and novel lamps that make use of LED and OLED bulbs. These experimental installations are a demonstration of how technical and aesthetic changes are pushing the boundaries of light design.
In Praise of Shadows
Author: Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
This book explores the power dynamics and cultural connotations behind light and dark spaces. The writer talks of how traditional Japanese art and architecture prioritised shade and how that practice is facing a crisis in the modern age. The Western world, he argues, is dominated by light. The book paints vivid imagery of intimate spaces while explaining the dynamics of light and shade.
Collected Light Volume One: Women Light Artists
Authors: Martin Lupton and Sharon Stammers
This book is about light art, one where lighting is central to an artwork. In a field dominated by men, the book throws light on the work of 44 female artists from across the globe. They use lights to create stories around nature, colour, life and death in their artworks. Some of the featured artists include Chila Kumari Singh Burman, a radical feminist examining gender and culture, Jacqueline Hen who analyses body and space in her performative installations, and Kate McMillan who works with film and sound to address the erasure of women’s history and the impact of colonialism.