Monday, 1 June 2015

Comparism between the early psychological effect of lighting with todays

From the early stages of human kind, lighting was on of the most important elements in human life which helped the first human spices to further develop throughout their existing. From the early years of homo sapience, lighting had several psychological effect on humans and today, we can note that there are several characteristics which are identical with those from millions of years ago.

As noted by Bill Williams in his online publication about the history of light and lighting, early signs of psychological effect of lighting started to develop as early as the first discovery of fire which occur ed 400,000 years BC. When observing the statements written about the early signs of psychological effect of lighting on human, we can relate several characteristics which are identical with our reaction to lighting and its psychological effect on us. 

As part of the developing nature, throughout the years lighting became an essential part of human nature. The recent lifestyle development of human being effected directly the physiology of man kind because of us humans concentrating more on work and our fast lifestyle which started to detach mankind from its nature. As state in ‘Lighting and Physiology’, an online research paper published by Dr Sergio Altomonte, human race is now diverting from its bond with nature which eventually improve human life and this calls for immediate measures to improve this situation. One of the solution for this problem is more appropriate design to help accommodate and balance the needs of human beings.

When we look at psychological and physiological effect of lighting and evaluate the historical information that is available, we can see that several effects are identical. With our technological improvement, Designer are trying to improve the well being of humans which is effecting everything around us.

When human beings discovered fire, which is considered as on of the first source of artificial lighting, they started to feel more secure during the night as fire extended their visibility of the surroundings. This is one of the psychological effects of lighting that can be compared with today's and it can be clearly stated that although millions of years has passed and human race had several technological achievements, lighting is still on of the most fundamental elements of human life.

It is clearly evident that other psychological and physiological effects of early lighting, in this case fire, is identical with that produces by lighting with the latest technology such as LED’s. Another psychological effect on human which is the same as that created in early life is the mood created by lighting. One of the basic effect which is related to color temperature is the warmth feeling created by lighting. When a recent light source such as LED is emitting a warm white light, The same effect is created as that created by a tungsten bulb or fire. Although the light source is from a different era, we can observe and identical effect on human mind.

Reference List
Williams, B, 1999. History. A History of Light and Lighting, [Online]. 2.2, 88. Available at: http://www.mts.net/ [Accessed 06 April 2015]
Altomonte, S, 2005. Lighting and Physiology. Artificial and Natural Light Related to the Human Body, [Online]. 1, 19. Available at: http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/ [Accessed 08 April 2015]
Ginthner, D, 2002. Implication. Lighting: Its Effect on People and Spaces, [Online]. 1, 5. Available at: http://www.informedesign.org/ [Accessed 06 April 2015]
Lawson, B, 2001. The Language of Space. 1st ed. United Kingdom: Architectural Press

Gordon, G, 2003. Interior Lighting for Designers. 4th ed. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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