Heaven or Hell on Earth: The Aesthetic War of Lighting
Transcription:
This is Julia James Davis and welcome to the War on Beauty.
There's a reason why dystopian societies are always depicted as looking like hospitals with this cold blue white light, sterile, lifeless spaces. And that is the way that our whole world is actually starting to look because of the lighting that we're using.
But it didn't always used to be like this. From candle lit churches to the golden glow of Hollywood. Light once gave form to beauty, but now it bleaches and erases it.
(subtitle: God said, "Let there be light!" And there was light.)
Let there be light. The first act of God in the formation of the whole world. Light is so important. It's the first thing that we see when we're born, and the last thing that we see when we die.
The primordial existential importance of light truly cannot be underestimated because it gives form to the world but also plays such an an important aesthetic role. It has the capacity to either make our world appear very warm and human and alive, or conversely cold, soulless and dead.
So in this video we are going to explore how light has changed over time, from the romance of candle light and rich technicolor film to fluoresence and the overall illumination of dystopian surveillance, and how light has played a very important role in the war on beauty.
So let's start with the way that lighting has literally just changed over time from its science to the forms and techniques of lighting, because that is really what has changed the way that light has aesthetically affected the world over time.
The best example I can think of of old-world lighting is the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon which is my favorite movie. And I think that this movie really gives us the best kind of look at what the old days used to look like in terms of lighting, because Kubrick actually just used natural light and candle light as people existed back then.
So in the evening scenes, there's really this very rich warm glow from all the candles that bring such a mysterious beauty to the rooms, to the interpersonal interactions, and to the people themselves.
And there's also this unmistakable fleshiness and humanness that is evoked with the candle light. And even in the daylight scenes, which compared to today are much less illuminated because there was no use of overhead lighting. That meant that the only primary source of light was what was coming through the windows from daylight. And that would also really depend on the weather if it was overcast or if it was sunny. So that was the primary source of light shown in the daylight scenes of Barry Lynon.
And although these scenes were a lot cooler toned than the candle light scenes at night, it looks very natural and human in a way not to have harsh overhead lighting. And also too, that really makes the interiors look even more beautiful.
So that's kind of how things would look back then, candle light or natural light.
And what was also really important was the difference in how the public spaces were lit, especially between the 16th and the 19th centuries. They were lit by lanterns that basically just had a flame. And also then after that was gas lanterns.
Think of the famous examples of streets lit by gas lanterns like Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.
The drama-filled candle lit scenes and worlds of the past was perfectly encapsulated by the artwork of Caravaggio, which is really characterized by this heavy use of shadow and light Ciaro-Schiuro or Chiaro-Scuro.
The important thing was the fact that the light really threw the important parts of the scene into a sharp relief.
And it's really also important to note that those who were looking at a Caravaggio painting contemporary to Caravaggio up until kind of recently would have been looking at them in a church lit by only candles, which would then even make that a more powerful image to see.
And just like the candle lit scenes of Barry Lyndon, this candle lit sharp shadow and light contrast of Caravaggio's paintings gives the humans and the figures in the works such this feeling of being real, of being fleshy and human and alive.
And up until recently, our world continued to have this very warm light that had such a human quality to it.
From the technicolor films of old Hollywood, golden era to the home interiors of the 1990s, and even in fashion magazines like Vogue, photography had this very vibrant, human, and alive quality.
But things started to change in the 1950s when fluorescent lights, which are notable for their very cold, washed out glare that flattens everything, took over the warm toned incandescent light bulbs because they were cheaper and more efficient.
And really interestingly, according to the Department of Energy, the shift from incandescent to fluorescent occurred because of financial reasons, specifically the 1973 oil crisis, which caused an energy shortage.
(subtitle: U.S. Department of Energy - It was another energy storage - the 1973 oil crisis - that caused lighting engineers to develop a fluorescent bulb that could be used in residential applications. In 1974, researchers at Sylvania started investigating how they could miniaturize the ballast and tuck it into the lamp. While they developed a patent for their bulb, they couldn't find a wat to produce it feasibly. Two years later in 1976, Edward Hammer at General Electric figured out how to - Article: The History of the Light Bulb, November 22, 2013)
This pushed lighting engineers to develop a fluorescent bulb that could be used in residential applications. And then by the mid 1980s, compact fluorescent bulbs came onto the market. And then by the '1990s, those became widespread and just overall replaced incandescent bulbs. The bulbs that were used from the 1900s to the 2000s.
And what's important about this is that incandescent bulbs, although they are less efficient in their energy use, have a very specific aesthetic quality to them, they're a lot warmer and cozier in their look, and really emphasize shadow and depth and human skin tone.
On the other hand though, fluorescent lights emit a very harsh blue green tone light that looks very clinical.
It's now the lighting that we associate with hospitals, offices, and schools.
And now from fluorescents, we've moved on to LED lights, which are the most efficient. And when the LED light first came onto the market, it was only available in a very blue white light. Although now you can pick from a larger range of tones.
(subtitle: Forbes: The New U.S. Rules That Are Phasing Out Incendescent Light Bulbs: Watt You Need To Know - Updated July 1, 2024 - Article by Lexie Pelchen)
(subtititle: According to the Department of Energy (DoE), the rules are as follows, "The first rule establishes a revised definition of general service lamps while the second implements the minimun standard of 45 lumen per watt for light bulbs that meet the revised definition. These rules are part of 100 energy efficiency actions the Biden Administration is completing this year, which together will save families $100 every year." - Article by Lexie Pelchen)
But what I think is really interesting is that in 2023, incandescent bulbs were actually effectively banned by the government, by the Biden administration due to a regulation that said: household bulbs must emit a minimum of 45 lumens per watt instead of the 12 to 18 lumens per watt emitted by incandescent.
And perhaps this decision was just about efficiency and energy usage, but our world is becoming more and more lit.
In fact, it is becoming over illuminated by harsh artificial lighting.
It was measured that from 2012 to 2016, the Earth's artificially lit outdoor area grew by 2.2% per year, with a total radiance growth of 1.8% per year.
This overillumination has caused a phenomenon called light pollution, where there's a glare on the night sky that's caused by excessive artificial lighting, which blocks people from seeing the stars and the planets, but also that has a disruptive effect on ecosystems and on human health.
(subtitle: "An increased amount of light at night lowers melatonin production, which results in sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, stress, anxiety, and other health problems." "Light Pollution" by National Geographic)
According to National Geographic, it's actually been shown that quote, "An increased amount of light at night lowers melatonin production, which results in sleep deprivation, fatigue, headaches, stress, anxiety, and other health problems."
And it's specifically this blue light, which is emanated from our phones and our laptops, and also our household LED lights that is particularly harmful.
And outside of all of this, the shift from warm and natural toned light to cool and inhuman light has just had an effect on our arts as well.
Bleaching any and all beauty from fashion photography, from films, and even our interiors.
And it's really interesting because in all depictions of dystopian societies, like in films, you'll notice a very similar thing. Whatever the story might be, which is that the lighting is always cold and sterile and clinical.
It's always this dehumanizing lighting which is a reflection of the constant surveillance, emotional flatness and spiritual deadness, due to being cut off from God, and therefore of love and hope and a fulfilling life.
And also interestingly in real life when you see this sort of lighting used it's always usually with very minimalist or non-colourful interiors, or even, thinking about the associations of this kind of lighting, with certain political regimes, for example the communist USSR or North Korea.
When you think about those things, you associate a very gray cold image in your mind which evokes the surveillance and interrogation rooms that you imagine to be in those countries.
But compare that to when you think of 1950s America. You think of idyllic warm toned homeiness and coziness.
Lighting plays such an important role in shaping those images and those aesthetics and associations in our mind.
And so it's no wonder that as our western society has become increasingly valueless and therefore more dystopian, so too have our cityscapes and our surroundings become a lot more gray and flat, which has had a major impact on our arts.
A great example of this is how fashion photography has changed. And I do consider fashion photography an art. When you think about Irving Penn or Arthur Elgort, all the great photographers of the past, those are certainly artists.
So, I recently saw these new Harper's Bazar Italia covers by Jurgen Teller, which are about the Jubilee year in Rome. And despite these stunning backgrounds, these models are photographed in churches - they're beautiful backgrounds - the photography looks so lifeless and cold, and the models just look so inhuman, standing there like dead fish. They're not doing anything.
And really, the lighting contributes so much to this lifeless image.
It's really the reflection of the sterileness, which - no pun intended - has become in vogue.
But compare that to a shoot from December 1994 in American Vogue by Arthur Elgort featuring Claudia Schiffer in the same city, in Rome, but it's captured so differently. It's vibrant and fun, which makes these images appear full of life, capturing the true joy and beauty of the eternal city.
These two side-by-side comparisons of these two photo shoots really illuminate - again, no pun intended - the aesthetic importance of lighting and creating beauty.
The overuse of artificial light has created so much flatness and no depth.
And when depth is erased, it dampens our ability to perceive meaning in the world around us.
And then it becomes just a vicious cycle.
Because I think that the reason the lighting is so ugly, it's a byproduct of the fact that our world has been overtaken by moral relativism and atheism, which then bleaches all beauty from surroundings.
And then when all beauty is bleached from surroundings, then that fosters an environment of moral relativism and of atheism.
Because beauty is truth and goodness and ultimately is an echo of heaven. It's something that points you beyond the here and now and to God.
(subtitle: "In nature there are no bearers of the flat or the cheap... This category presupposes the human spirit and its capacity for perversion." "The beauty of the second power also contains a qualitative antithesis to the flat and the cheap. This qualitative antithesis to the flat is alive in all genuine beauty." - Dietrich von Hildebrand, Aesthetics vol. 1)
Catholic aesthetician Dietrich von Hildebrand wrote in his book aesthetics volume 1, "In nature there are no bearers of the flat or the cheap... This category presupposes the human spirit and its capacity for perversion." And he also says that "The beauty of the second power - which is spiritual beauty - also contains a qualitative antithesis to the flat and the cheap. This qualitative antithesis to the flat is alive in all genuine beauty."
So our lighting now has become anti-nature and therefore anti-beauty.
This is the lighting of hell. Not of the flames of hell, but of the blinding white light, of a world stripped of beauty and mystery.
And even Dante imagined the lowest circle of hell not as flames, but as a cold frozen wasteland.
So if we are going to revivify the world, so much of that depends on lighting, on warm human natural lighting. Back to beautiful lighting everywhere, not just at home, but in our public spaces, at the post office, at the courthouse, at the grocery store.
All of this matters so much, and really does form the world around us, in a very very important way.
So I would love to know your thoughts on this.
Have you noticed the change in lighting over your lifetime or just when you go out do you notice how harsh the lighting has become?
I would love to know.
Please do leave a comment and I thank you so much for watching. Please do subscribe so that you don't miss out on any future videos from the War on Beauty, and I will see you in the next one.