Colour and Light: Spatial Experience

Light and colour together form our visual image of the surrounding world. Despite this, colour and light are too often treated as two distinct fields of knowledge. Colour specialists often lack knowledge about light and light specialists often do not know enough about colour. Knowledge of both colour and light are separated between different professional and academic areas, each with its own set of theories, concepts and methods. Those who want to find their own understanding, and be able to apply it in their work, could easily get lost in all of this - with the result that only a small proportion of existing knowledge will be used in practice. There is also a strong need to formulate and bring in new knowledge. In Europe, the requirement for saving energy has led to a rapid conversion to new energy-saving light sources, including LEDS (light-emitting diodes), and thus old experience-based knowledge of light and colour has partially become obsolete.This book describes the coherent interaction of light and colour in the spatial context. It explains the nature of light to colour specialists, and the nature of colour to light specialists, simultaneously conveying an understanding that light and colour must be thought of together. In addition, it brings out the apparent contradictions between the practically based knowledge of craftsmen, engineers and designers, and the theoretically based knowledge of academics in various disciplines. The book provides a basic understanding of light and colour, and their significance for humans in the spatial context. It provides background context, facts and possible approaches; it is neither a manual of how to use colour and light practical or aesthetically, nor it is a traditional presentation of given aesthetic principles or doctrines.