Lighting Seminar
Theatre Lighting and the Build Environment
SLL seminar at Rose Bruford College
On Wednesday 5th May, Rose Bruford College and the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) hosted a one-day seminar to introduce lighting professionals from the Construction and Engineering industries into the dark arts of theatre lighting.
The seminar consisted of two parts: in the morning session, four theatre lighting designers introduced key projects, talking about their design process. CIBSE president Mike Simpson hosted the seminar. The LDs were Rick Fisher (Chairman, Association of Lighting Designers ALD) Declan Randall, Hansjörg Schmidt (Programme Director, BA Lighting Design at Rose Bruford College), and Alex Wardle. In the afternoon, delegates engaged in hands-on workshops in the college’s lighting laboratories, creating a lighting scene for Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha.
Throughout the day, lively discussions centred on the often surprising parallels between the two disciplines, as well as the many differing approaches and processes. Delegates and speakers felt that a closer collaboration between members from the two organisations represented (ALD and SLL) would be hugely beneficial in terms of transferring knowledge and design practice. Moreover, the possibilities of a single, strong voice advocating our industry seemed worth further discussion, particularly in light of the ongoing need to develop a strategy that engages actively with industry’s and government’s push for sustainability in any new project we undertake.
Hansjörg Schmidt said: “This was a very successful first stab at working more closely with the SLL, building on the success of the annual Ready Steady Light event. I really hope we can further develop our relationship with both the ALD and SLL, and I think that there is a real opportunity here to share our own working practice as theatre lighting designers with the wider lighting community. My programme also hopes to collaborate more closely with both the SLL and ALD on promoting lighting design as a career choice across schools and colleges in the UK.”
13/05/2010