100 DESIGN / EDUCATION CASE STUDY 2 CASE STUDY 3
CASE STUDY 3: ‘Shine a Light’ installation- cum-student workshop for the Indo- German Urban mela 2012 Chennai, India The Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan in association with Lighting Research & Design organised the ‘Shine a Light’ lighting installation-cum-student workshop in Chennai. It was part of a larger collaborative celebration in India titled ‘Germany and India 2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities/Indo-German Urban Mela (fair)’. The overall theme for the installation was to provide the mela visitors a unique experience of colours, light and shadows. The two-day workshop was followed by an exhibition coinciding with the opening of the mela. Conceived as a small-scale installation, it quickly transformed into a large-scale workshop as over 70 students of architecture from Anna University and Hindustan University, Chennai expressed their willingness to participate. Manufacturers of various luminaire brands (Aldabra, Arcluce, Crescent, Erco, GenLED, Insta, Osram, Selux, Sill and Zumtobel) donated luminaires for the temporary installation. Companies dealing with these brands (Architectural Lighting Concepts (ALC), Cosmo–Vis-à-vis, Khimji Ramdas, Polaris Lighting and Versalite) provided their own technicians to help students realise the installation. The mela organisers provided electricity for powering these luminaires. The students were divided into groups and each assigned technical heads from the different luminaire dealing companies. The technical heads were instructed to provide basic pointers (without directly interfering in the students’ design process) by means of demonstrating the performance of their luminaires so as to enable students’ understand their performance. Students were then encouraged to design and realise their own installation using these luminaires. The final installation was well
received by all the mela visitors. The workshop became an important learning exercise for both students as well as technicians as they learnt practical aspects of designing exterior, landscape and urban lighting while touching upon larger urban issues.
ANALYSIS
An analysis of these three case studies shows that every decision made about a lighting design workshop depends on the overall objectives for the learner, as its success will be measured against these objectives. Therefore clearly stated objectives for each lighting design activity expressed in specific behavioural terms are a must for all workshops. Additionally, the following list of characteristics could make lighting design workshops attractive for everyone involved: • Face-lifting nature – The lighting installations were well received by everyone as they provided a face-lift to their respective sites. This encouraged the primary organisers to provide all the necessary permissions to conduct such an event at their sites, basic infrastructure facilities such as electricity, marketing collaterals, etc.
• Non-commercial nature – The workshops attracted students and sponsors alike as they were allowed to participate free of charge. The sponsors were only required to provide luminaires, props and technicians for helping students realise their installations instead of monetary funding. • Pedagogic nature – The dictionary definition of a ‘workshop’ is a discussion group or the like, which emphasises exchange of ideas, and the demonstration and application of techniques, skills, etc. Based on this definition, the pedagogy behind a lighting design workshop would be an exchange of ideas about lighting and a subsequent demonstration of lighting
techniques and skills. However, the question arises: “Who is this pedagogic exchange of ideas between?” One form of exchange could be between individuals from the same background such as in Case Study 1, which involved students and the faculty of architectural lighting design. Another form of exchange could be between individuals from entirely different backgrounds such as in Case Study 3, which involved students of architecture and lighting technicians. This second form of exchange also proved to be quite effective as both the students and technicians formed a synergetic symbiosis of skills. The students used their creative skills to arrive at ideas for highlighting the architecture, while the technicians used their technical skills to help students realise these ideas.
CONCLUSION Practical lighting design workshops are amongst the most popular training devices in lighting education. Properly designed workshops could be a time- and cost- efficient method of producing active involvement of all participants compared to other training activities. Despite these obvious advantages, workshop leaders and facilitators in lighting need to radically rethink their budget plans, infrastructure facilities and policies for the sustained performance of this dynamic learning model.
amdugar@lighting-rnd.in
Dr. Amardeep M Dugar, MIES, MSLL, PLDA, is the Founding Director of Lighting Research & Design, a firm that specialises in applied research and design consultancy. REFERENCES
Eison, J., & Stevens, E. (1995). Faculty development workshops and institutes. In W. A. Wright (Ed.), Teaching improvement practices. Successful strategies for higher education. Bolton, MA: Anker, cha. 8.
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