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MUSEUM LIGHTING / OPINION
Figure 3 (far left): The ambient illumination in this gallery is due to reflected light from the display walls and cabinets, giving them and the artworks they support an enhanced brightness, at the Hong Kong Art Gallery, Kowloon, PRC.
Figure 4 (left): For this display at the Getty Museum, Santa Monica, California, the ambient illumination has been reduced to a very low level to provide satisfactory viewing at minimal display illuminance.
Table 2: Physical and visible connections between museum galleries and other spaces.
due to the electric lighting. Wherever light- ing has this kind of variability, conservation control shifts from limiting illuminance (lux) to limiting cumulative exposure (lux hours per year), which makes monitoring consid- erably more complicated. Conservators, not unnaturally, tend to prefer illuminance limits that can be more reliably maintained and are not subject to the variability of daylight, but this carries lighting practice one further step towards controlled, invari- ant illumination. For moderately responsive materials in the R2 category, the limiting illuminance is 50 lux, and this calls for an altogether different illumination distribution. A diffused, ambi- ent illumination of 50 lux would produce a dull overall appearance, and for displays to attract attention at this illuminance, the illumination needs to be focused onto the displays to establish a distinct brightness imbalance between the displays and the ambient condition. Figure 3 is an example of a R2/L2 situation, and shows a gallery space that is lit entirely by light reflected from the display walls and cabinets. Visi-
tors who have been adapted to moderately low brightness levels before they enter this space will find themselves in a softly lit setting in which the displayed works on paper catch their attention and appear quite sufficiently illuminated, despite the illuminance limit. The highly responsive R3 category compris- es materials that are too responsive to be placed on permanent display at 50 lux. The illuminance limit is still set at 50 lux, be- cause reducing illuminance below this level can challenge viewers’ ability to discrimi- nate detail and colour, particularly for older people. This puts curators in the awkward position of having to either display such ma- terial substantially below the recommended illuminance levels, or needing to introduce some procedure for restricting the duration of display. Generally, a means of restricting display duration is necessary for R3 materi- als, but even so, L3 lighting may involve producing an illumination distribution that is designed specifically to reveal the visible attributes of the displayed objects, and is set to an intensity that is judged to be just sufficient for satisfactory viewing. It often happens that R3 materials are small scale and intricate, and need to be displayed in ways that permit close-range viewing. Fig- ure 4 shows an example of a R3/L3 situation that provides well for this, and in which the ambient illumination is close to zero. There is a tendency for the conservation limits to be thought of as an irritating nuisance that can sometimes get in the way of effective display, but, as can be seen from these examples, those limits largely determine opportunities for the viewing experience at all stages of a museum visit. Of course it would be possible to meet the limits by installing L2 and L3 lighting throughout, but that would mean reject- ing opportunities to expose visitors to the dynamics of daylight, as well as cutting visi- tors off from visual contact with the outside world. There is no doubting the brilliance of the display techniques achievable with
modern electric lighting, but to plan a museum layout with consideration to guid- ing visitors from outdoor daylight, through L0 spaces to L1, and on to L2 and L3, is to design for a variety of visual experiences. Table 2 shows a schematic outline of such a plan, which has the potential both to exploit the display opportunities of those objects that can withstand interaction with intense light, and to present attractive displays of light-responsive objects that would be damaged by such exposure. Such a plan has an added advantage. It can be arranged so that the more fragile materials, that have the most demanding environmen- tal requirements for their conservation, are located more remotely from the more vari- able external conditions. In this way, the museum becomes a series of settings for housing and presenting objects in environ- mental conditions suited to their visible and material attributes.
http://kit-lightflow.blogspot.com
Acknowledgments Tables 1 and 2 were first published in 2007 by Butterworth-Heinemann in the author’s book, ‘Light for Art’s Sake: Lighting for artworks and museum displays’ (ISBN: 978-0-7506-6430-1), and are reproduced here with permission.
Christopher Cuttle, MA, FCIBSE, FIESANZ, FIESNA, LC, is a lighting designer, advisor, author and educator on all aspects of lighting.
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