Light up – The Potential of Light in Museum Architecture

Angewandte Interdisciplinary Lab

Dynamic artificial lighting offers artists, architects, curators and museum experts nearly unlimited possibilities for illuminating an exhibition space.

But how should the various nuances of artificial light interact with the artwork and the exhibition space? What potential does dynamic artificial lighting provide as an interactive material in galleries and art museums? What is the relationship between light and the artwork, exhibition space and audience?

In galleries and art museums, our perception of art, space and atmosphere is essentially determined by lighting. Today, pioneering LED technologies allow us to create customized lighting scenarios. Artificial light is becoming an interactive material in museum architecture, not only in terms of conceptual design but as real-time spatial experiences. Exploring the potential of dynamic artificial lighting technologies in museum architecture opens new perspectives and approaches to the use of light in exhibition spaces. Once one sees light as a material in the museum, then one can begin to assess its potential in the exhibition space.

The book Light Up – The Potential of Light in Museum Architecture begins by asking why lighting is simply taken for granted, regarded merely as a light source rather than as a creator of mood affecting our perception of an artwork, allowing us to view and interpret it in new ways. The interrelationship between the arts, as well as two different perspectives regarding the use of light as a material in the exhibition space, forms the foundation for the book.
As an architect, the author Andrea Graser examines the subject through an analytical approach to exhibition space and museum architecture. Her perspective has been broadened by the insights of Friedrich Biedermann, an artist who uses light as a medium in his works. Both studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and over the course of their long careers as architect and artist they have pursued this theme. Together, they developed a theory of the object-oriented ontology of light, which regards light as spiritual matter uniting the architectural space, the artwork, and the viewer.

Light up – The Potential of Light in Museum Architecture
Edition Angewandte
Publisher: Birkhäuser
Year: 2023
Author: Andrea Graser
Pages: 224
Size: 27,9 x 18,4 cm
Price: € 42,00 [D]
Language: English
Graphic design: Caroline Ecker
Translator: Michael Bernstein
ISBN: 978-0356-2705-3 En
E-Book: 978-3-0356-2706-0 En