The Heart of Light

A Holistic Primer for a Life and Career in Lighting Design and Production

Deanna Fitzgerald

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000516906
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Theatre Stagecraft & Scenography

The Heart of Light: A Holistic Primer for a Life and Career in Lighting Design and Production is a fresh look into the ever-evolving fields of lighting design and technology for arts and entertainment.

Full of practical information, historic perspectives, engaging projects, and opportunities for deep inquiry, practice, and reflection, this book offers a well-rounded foundation in the art, technology, and industries of light. It explores a wide range of topics, including:

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• how to observe, communicate about, and use light effectively

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• how quietive practices can deepen the creative process

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• current lighting equipment used across the various arts and entertainment industries and strategies for keeping up with its rapid innovation

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• how to choose a career path that keeps you inspired, as well as ways to search for work with dos and don'ts of effective career building

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• how to cope with and celebrate the unknown and related challenges of implementing a design under pressure

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• considerations for using self-reflection to be successful and impact positive change

From her perspective of lighting designer, educator, and contemplative practitioner, the author explores lighting not just as subject, but as an invitation to a fulfilling lifelong adventure.

Written for students of Theatrical Lighting courses and emerging lighting professionals, The Heart of Light is a must-read for anyone intrigued by the power of light.

CHAPTER 1 Introduction and an Invitation

DOI: 10.4324/9781003022725-1

One of the exciting things about lighting design is that it requires both artistic and technical skills, not to mention management, leadership, organization, patience, and a good sense of humor. Not only must you harness the elements of design and create effective compositions in the way that other visual artists do, but you must do those things by using technology and skills that in some ways feel unrelated to the product they produce.

Think about a painter who picks up a brush, dips it in the paint, and applies that paint to canvas to create their work. Painting requires planning and technique, but consider the unique gap between the tools a lighting designer uses in order to get to a product and the product itself. The effective picture that the lighting designer creates requires schematic drawings, lights that have to be plugged into cables connected to mechanical rooms, and hours of computer programming in a syntax that doesn’t sound anything like a visual image. This is part of the reason that lighting programmer and entertainment technician are their own careers separate from lighting designer, but imagine a painter trying to create a painting by telling someone else with a brush in their hand what to do. You might argue that scenic designers have to be able to instruct scene painters in that way, but even in that case there is still usually a hand connected to a brush, connected to the paint, connected to the canvas. For the lighting artist there are usually more pieces of technology and more space between the artist, their medium, and the observer, who – by the way – may not even realize that medium (light) is there.

My approach to lighting design and the education of designers is informed by years of another vital set of practices, which we’ll call quietive practices. If you think about the kinds of over-arching skills a lighting designer or collaborative artist need – an awareness of what is around them, an ability to maintain focus on objectives as ideas evolve, an openness to others’ perspectives, an ability to keep generating fresh ideas and hold a lot of information in their head at one time, stay calm under pressure, etc. – all of these things can be a routine outcome of many of the quietive or contemplative practices available. If you’ve tried any of these things and think it’s not for you, I invite you to keep an open mind and read on, because there are lots of examples of pros who thought the same thing but just hadn’t found what they needed yet.

Consider this: in order to create a good design, we have to be able to generate new ideas. In the 1990s, popular psychology told us that our minds come up with an awful lot of thoughts throughout the day, but most of them are the same thoughts. Truly new ideas come when our minds stop looping through all the information we already know. If quietive practices can help us do that, isn’t it worth a try?

If we honor this incredible gift of our minds, but take the time to condition it away from constantly chewing on immutable information, we may find ourselves with a vibrant, creative life. People will often say to me, “I tried…” (insert any quietive practice you think you don’t like) “…and I can’t clear my mind, so it doesn’t work for me.” Or “I tried that and I couldn’t sit still.” In the kind of quietive work I teach, sitting still isn’t the goal, nor will I ever instruct you to “clear your mind”. Think of the irony of this. We have spent our whole lives developing our ability to think, solve problems, communicate… But now we think we’re going to make that lifetime of conditioning stop by sitting down and willing it so? This is not likely to happen. And why would we want to? Research shows that we might be happier not thinking about the past or future, but we also wouldn’t be able to create a lighting design or manage much about life.

Are you ready yet? It won’t take much time to get started. We’ll go further on this idea in the next chapter, but for now, engage with the project “Getting Started Being Quiet” at the end of this chapter and give it a try!

In the meantime, get ready for a book about lighting that will inspire you to create like someone who cultivates skill in action (one of the many ways the work of yoga is sometimes defined) and channels creative potency. We’ll start our journey by considering how we can most accurately comprehend the visual world around us (Observe, Chapter 2). Next we’ll dive deep into what is known about light and consider how we can go about knowing more (Inquire, Chapter 3). After that we’ll take a long trip through the resources the industries utilize, while strategizing on keeping up with its constant innovation (Gather, Chapter 4). Then we’ll begin the process of coalescing this information into your own choices (Choose, Chapter 5). After that we’ll consider how the artist turns choices into actions, and then hones the result (Do and Adapt, Chapter 6). We’ll begin to wrap-up by learning to self-assess and grow (Reflect, Chapter 7).

In the last chapter, I’ll offer some inspiration (Chapter 8) for your new life’s journey and ask you to consider your contribution. Following that, the Appendix will be a potpourri of important information waiting for you when you need it. For those of you using this book to teach a class or classes, jump to Appendix 4 now for “Suggestions for Scaling this Book”.

Figure 1.1 Performers waiting for technical adjustments during a musical theatre rehearsal under light at the University of Arizona

Photo courtesy of Danny Gurwin

If you’ve ever been to a yoga class, you may have heard the word Namaste. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do yoga to be a lighting designer, but since I do, I infuse some of the gifts of my practice into my teaching. I respectfully borrow the word Namaste from east Indian culture. It has been translated in many ways, but I invoke my former students, colleagues, and collaborators who prefer this version: “The light in me sees and honors the light in you.” Namaste, y’all!

Project: Getting Started Being Quiet

Why?

To condition the mind for creative thought.

What and How?

If you have just a moment:

• Sit or stand comfortably.
• Close your eyes.
• Bring your attention to your breath as it moves in and out of your body. Don’t try to control the breath, just observe it.
• Notice any sensations in the nose, throat, chest, or abdomen.
• Continue with this for a few moments or minutes as you are able. When you notice that thoughts or other things have interrupted (and they surely will), bring your attention back to the breath. Do not try to engage, argue with, or judge the distractions. Just favor your breath.
• When you feel ready to come out of this, relax for a moment, tilt the head forward to shield your eyes, then open the eyes slowly.
• Be sure to rest for a few moments before reengaging with things. An abrupt switch from quiet to engaged can cause agitation. The longer the quiet moment the longer transition needed.

If you have a half an hour or more:

• Try a little movement before sitting. Walking, yoga, tai chi, a gentle bike ride, swim, or just moving around as you are able may help to unravel tension as long as you can work with favoring the breath or another focal point. Modifications to yoga and other quietive practices exist for different kinds of mobility and physical or mental considerations, so don’t hesitate to look around for resources (a local class or an instructional video) that meet you where you are.
• When you are ready to be still, follow the instructions above.

Measuring Success: This kind of activity does not allow for an immediate measuring of success. You can use a more-often-than-not meter, but know that how you feel about quieting can be affected by all kinds of things in your life. If “more often than not”, you feel lighter and more clear headed in the time following a quietive moment, then it is likely that you are experiencing the positive effects of these practices. If after practicing for some time, your quiet practice feels like a safe place – familiar and warm – this also can be a sign of success. But remember that almost nothing is a sign of failure. Feeling like “it didn’t work” and resistance to taking the time usually has more to do with what is going on around you than the quietive exercise itself. It takes commitment and a certain degree of trust, but it will pay off.

Timetable: If you are new to this, start with a minute at a time two to four times a day. If you have access to a device app that can randomly cue you throughout the day, that can be helpful, or maybe you can find a buddy. After a minute a few times a day seems doable, try five minutes in the morning or in the evening, and then try both. After that is comfortable, follow your instinct to lead you to longer periods or join a meditation group. However you go about it, consistency is key. The more consistent you are, the more comfortable it will be; the less consistent you are, the more challenging it will be. Set a goal that is practical for your particular situation and stick with it.

CHAPTER 2 Observe

DOI: 10.4324/9781003022725-2

We’ll begin Chapter 2 by jumping right into a project designed to hone your ability to observe thoroughly.

Project: Lighting Moments

Why?

One of the lighting designer’s most important tasks is to use light to affect others. In order to do that, they must gain an awareness of light around them and its impact. In this project you observe, document, and reflect on single moments when the light in the experience affected you in some way. In the beginning, favor moments in which the light is naturally occurring (rather than designed), because those take more practice.

What?

Explore two questions:

1. What is the physical reality of the moment? In other words, what specifically caused this experience? Where is the light coming from, what is it landing on, and what is its color, texture, and quality?
2. How and why does it make you feel? This is usually the harder question to answer when you’re just starting out, but rest assured, there is almost always an answer. If it grabbed your attention, there was an effect. For example, a sunrise that leaves you feeling invigorated, perhaps because of the vibrant red. Or maybe a movement of shadow in an unexpected place that leaves you feeling anxious. It may feel hard to answer this question at first, but the effort will be time well spent.

How?

This works well as a class exercise on a discussion board, or organized on social media. Upload a picture, answer the two questions, then view other participants’ submissions and comment on them. Sharing or even capturing the images is not absolutely necessary in order to meet the basic objectives of the project, but doing so can spark good conversations and be the beginning of a useful personal library of images. Simple journaling in a notebook about an experience is also quite sufficient.

Measuring success: A progressive depth of analysis over time is the best indicator of success. If you’re having trouble analyzing the impact, ask yourself why you noticed the moment in the first place. What were you feeling before you noticed it and what were you feeling after? What about the experience might have caused that change in feeling? Over time, this gets easier and your ability to detail your experience will grow.

Timetable: In the beginning, set a goal of one entry every couple of weeks. Eventually you will find yourself doing it automatically and be amazed at what was always there. Until that happens, use deadlines. If you haven’t had an experience as the deadline is nearing, make some time to find one.

Always honoring my teachers, this project has evolved from one that James H. Gage called the “Lighting Diary”.

Quietive Practices and the Creative Process

Quietive practices are more commonly known as contemplative practices, but I think this can be a bit confusing. In the way that I have learned and instruct quietive practices, we aren’t meant to be contemplating things when we practice. So I have borrowed the word “quietive” from one of my teachers, Al Kaszniak, who holds an unusual pair of titles: professor emeritus of neuropsychology and Buddhist Sensei. For me, good contemplation is a cherished effect of quietive practice, but not something we do intentionally when we practice.

The seemingly most popular contemplative or quietive practices are yoga and meditation, but there are many more. The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (contemplativemind.org) has a ...