New Parents in Lighting initiative launches
(UK) – Parents in Lighting is a UK-based initiative aimed at creating a peer support network to provide assistance and resources for expectant and current parents in the lighting industry.
The initiative was established by Chloe Salvi, Lighting Designer at LightIQ, and Ruth Kelly Waskett, Project Director at Hoare Lea.
“It can feel challenging to navigate personal and professional life during some stages of parenthood. Having a support network of peers in the industry that have walked a similar path can facilitate this balance and assist individuals with their career growth,” says Co-Founder Salvi.
The pair are calling for parents and soon-to-be parents in the lighting community to take a short, five-minute, survey to gather more information and statistics on those with children in the industry. The survey can be found here: https://lnkd.in/eHYBmWrk
The initiative is also keen to hear of positive experiences from parents in lighting to be featured in a short issue of good practice examples. Email Salvi and Kelly Waskett at parentsinlighting@gmail.com to be involved.
IALD announces new Southern Europe chapter
(Southern Europe) - In ongoing efforts to support and advocate for lighting designers worldwide, the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) has established a dedicated chapter for Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, encouraging professionals in those countries to take part.
Joining more than 35 other chapters in the association’s network, IALD Southern Europe invites interested designers to become members of the IALD community and gain access to its array of programmes, events, and networking among over 1,500 industry colleagues.
Mônica Luz Lobo, IALD President, said: “The Association is thrilled to have a dedicated chapter serving these European countries and their immensely talented designers. We are certain that those who elect to take part in the IALD’s many conferences, seminars, educational opportunities, and professional gatherings will quickly recognise the value and benefit of membership.”
The new chapter will be overseen by four exemplary designers and members of the IALD community: Chiara Carucci, Associate IALD, from Italy; Anna Sbokou, IALD, from Greece; Dean Skira, IALD, from Croatia; and Martina Frattura, Junior Associate IALD, from Portugal.
Speaking from Salerno, Italy, Carucci said: “On behalf of the other four lead volunteer coordinators, I'm pleased to share news of the formation of the IALD Southern Europe Chapter.
“As IALD lighting designers, we recognise the role of our local associations, and by supporting them we aim to increase awareness of the profession of Lighting Design in our regions. The IALD chapters are inclusive groups that provide a platform for all involved – members or not – where they can engage and share to develop our community further, as this is everyone’s ultimate goal.”
In special recognition of this expansion, the IALD will celebrate the newly established chapter at IALD Enlighten Europe 2023, the upcoming lighting design conference event taking place from 30 June – 1 July in Berlin, Germany.
Designers interested in becoming members of the IALD and joining the new Southern Europe Chapter can find further details on the IALD website.
Registration opens for LiGHT 23
(UK) – Following the popularity of LiGHT 22, which saw more than 3,500 visitors attend to discover over 100 high-end international lighting brands, registration for LiGHT 23 is now live.
Taking place on 21-22 November 2023 at London’s Business Design Centre, LiGHT 23 will see even more exhibitors taking part than last year, with new spaces and exciting additions to the [d]arc thoughts talk programme. The show is brought to the industry by [d]arc media, built on the company’s and the team’s knowledge and experience of the lighting specification market that spans more than 20 years.
This year will see an increase in interior designers and decorative lighting brands both attending and exhibiting, providing an incredible opportunity for interior and lighting designers to discover new technologies, solutions and inspiration.
To fully embrace this design focus, an exciting new area for the 2023 show has been announced – darc space. The darc space focuses on decorative lighting in architecture, acting as the perfect place for interior designers and lighting designers to network, collaborate, provide inspiration and specify decorative lighting brands for their projects.
Situated in a prime position adjacent to the main conference room where the [d]arc thoughts programme will take place, darc space gives decorative lighting brands a dedicated area to shine. darc space will provide designers and specifiers looking for their next stunning light feature a one-stop-shop of decorative lighting brands to choose from. Acting as a key networking and meeting point throughout LiGHT 23, darc space will also feature a dedicated bar for the late night opening on the first day of the show, while hosting a complementary LiGHT Lunch on the second day.
LiGHT is overjoyed to be partnering with the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) for the second year running. As a partner of LiGHT 23, the BIID team will be hosting a meet and great for their members and prospective non-members in the Associations Lounge on Wednesday 22 November. This is an incredible opportunity for those attending LiGHT 23 to meet with the team and harness the benefits that BIID can offer to interior designers.
BIID works with interior designers to offer professional guidance, educational and development support, speaking opportunities and networking events. BIID is the UK’s only professional institute for interior designers, representing both the commercial and residential sectors, from heritage to cutting edge.
Paul James, Managing Director from LiGHT 23 said: “We are incredibly excited to see what this year’s show will bring, following the resounding positive feedback we received last year. We are delighted to be working closely with the BIID team to offer fantastic opportunities to interior designers attending the show.
“LiGHT 23 is set to be bigger and better than before, with more brands, exhibitors, visitors and talks. We have a strong line-up of companies and speakers joining, with support from renowned partners. The show is a key destination for those with a passion for design and specification, including architects, interior designers and lighting designers.”
Register here.
CIBSE and LIA launch Product Verification Scheme for circular economy
(UK) – The LIA (Lighting Industry Association) and CIBSE (Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers) have joined forces to introduce a product verification scheme aimed at promoting circular economy practices within the lighting industry. The scheme, known as TM66 Assured, will provide independent verification of lighting manufacturers’ circularity claims, ensuring accuracy and credibility.
The TM66 Assured product verification scheme, developed by the LIA and endorsed by CIBSE, is an essential component of the comprehensive TM66 toolkit to assess the circular economy credentials of lighting products throughout the supply chain. It leverages CIBSE’s TM66 Creating a Circular Economy in the Lighting Industry guidelines and the TM66 Circular Economy Assessment Methods (CEAM) developed by a cross industry team of manufacturers, specifiers and associations whose insight and ideas ensured TM66, published in 2021, would be both easy to use and widely applauded.
TM66 offers practical guidance and tools to enable the lighting sector to adopt sustainable, circular practices and has already gained recognition and adoption by major specifiers and organisations within the industry. In the future, it is envisaged that this will be extended to cover other areas of building services engineering beyond lighting products.
The collaboration between CIBSE and the LIA combines the power and expertise of CIBSE with the robust quality assurance, certification systems, and UKAS accredited laboratory of the LIA. Manufacturers are already providing ratings for their luminaires, and with the TM66 Assured Scheme, they can now seek third-party verification ensuring the credibility, objectivity, and consistency of these ratings. This partnership ensures the reliability and integrity of the TM66 Assured Product Conformity Verification Scheme.
David Barnwell, Managing Director of Holophane Europe Ltd., expressed his support for the initiative, stating, "Anything that helps drive greater awareness of the environmental benefits associated with a circular economy approach is a positive step forward. The TM66 Assured Product Conformity Scheme allows participating manufacturers to demonstrate their sustainability efforts, providing clear differentiation from unsubstantiated greenwashing."
Helen Loomes, President of the Society of Light and Lighting, highlighted the importance of sustainability in lighting practices and the need to evaluate products based on their whole-life carbon impact and material life cycle. She praised the TM66 and CEAM frameworks for enabling informed specification decisions. With the introduction of the TM66 Assured Product Verification Scheme, decision-makers can now have confidence that circular economy claims are robust and comparable between products, providing protection throughout the value engineering process.
Ayça Donaghy, CEO of the LIA, emphasised the lighting industry's commitment to delivering net-zero solutions and the necessity to address environmental impact comprehensively. Transitioning from the unsustainable linear economy to a circular economy, where resources in luminaires are conserved, valued, and their life extended, is the next logical step. Donaghy expressed her delight at the partnership between CIBSE and LIA, which brings together both organisations' strengths to establish a much-needed level playing field in sustainability ratings.
Find out more about the initiative here.
www.thelia.org.uk
www.cibse.org.uk
Acclaim Lighting - Terra Linear
Terra Linear is the new in-ground linear series powered by Acclaim’s XTR technology allowing for linear runs of up to 1,400ft from a single driver and automatically adapts to any voltage (100-277 volts AC). Featuring a low profile design of just under three inches wide, it is drive-over and walk-over rated, and includes a standard anti-slip coating. The direct-view version offers an incredibly clean, dot-free LED marker light for pathways and driveways.
Recolight applauds lighting industry’s adoption of circular economy
(UK) - At a press and stakeholder association event, Recolight CEO Nigel Harvey applauded the huge steps taken by the lighting industry in adopting a circular economy.
“Over the last three years, we have seen a step change in action on the circular economy in the lighting industry. And Recolight has been delighted to be a contributor to that transformation,” he said.
“Many more lighting industry companies are now active in the circular economy. Our recent Lighting Remanufacture conference had more than 70 attendees. A significant number of producers are now actively in remanufacture and upgrade of existing lighting – rather than just the supply of new lighting. That is a huge change. The needle is moving in the right direction.
“At Recolight, we’ve been proud to be a part of this revolution. Over the last three years, our circular economy webinars have been joined by 3,500 attendees, with a further 4,450 listening in afterwards. We have been delighted that more than 50 of the lighting industry’s most influential sustainability leaders have presented on the webinars.
“And in September last year, Circular Lighting Live, the UK’s first conference and exhibition on sustainability in lighting was a sell-out success. We were so delighted with the feedback we have received, that the event will be some 30% bigger in September 2023. What was most heartening was the number of attendees who said that the event had spurred them into action.
“We’ve also been thrilled by the take up of our workshops on lighting product design for the circular economy, joined by around 100 attendees from a wide range of lighting manufacturers. For 2023, new workshops looking at the practical guidance on how to validate sustainability of lighting products.”
Commenting on growth opportunities for Recolight, Harvey said: “We have sought to encourage and drive action on the circular economy in the lighting industry, because it is the right thing to do. It is part of our response to the climate crisis. But we are thrilled that it has also contributed to the attractiveness of Recolight as a compliance scheme – we have a record number of companies are considering joining Recolight at the end of 2023.”
Harvey concluded: “The changes we are now seeing have only been possible because of the effective partnership approach that has built up across the industry. Recolight are proud members and contributors to the LIA, the ILP, and the SLL, and we are delighted to work collaboratively with our friends and partners in the press.”
Preserve and Protect
Will Salter, Senior Designer at dpa lighting consultants discusses the importance of designing lighting for museums that preserves the artefacts on display, as well as enhancing the visitor experience.
The purpose of museums and galleries is to collect, preserve and display objects of cultural, artistic, or scientific significance for the education of the public. However, finding a balance between the two key objectives; display and preservation, is often hard to achieve.
This is because when a decision is made to exhibit an object it may be detrimental to its visual and physical integrity, cause ageing or fading of its materials or impact the significance or value of the piece. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the environment of the space the object will be displayed in, so that it can be exhibited under ‘safe’ gallery conditions while optimising the visitor experience.
Lighting is essential and plays a crucial role. A considered lighting scheme helps to create an atmosphere that complements the artwork, making it more engaging and immersive for visitors. Additionally, lighting can be used to highlight specific aspects of the artwork, such as colour, texture, and detail, making it easier for visitors to appreciate and understand the work.
Today, great thought and consideration is given to elements such as humidity, temperature, air quality and lighting to create a suitable environment for displaying objects to the public. Each has its own set of guidelines that museums follow during the installation and then continue to monitor during the entire time objects are on display.
The current lighting conservation guidelines for sensitive artifacts groups display objects in to three categories. These are: Sensitive Collections (works on paper, photographs, textiles) 50 lux max; Less Sensitive Collections (oil paintings, wood, leather) 150 lux max; Least Sensitive Collections (metal, ceramics, stone, glass) 300 lux.
Currently, there is an assumption that when the museum opens, the lights turn on and when the museum closes, they turn off. This means, for the most part, that the artwork on display is lit to the same lux level all day, every day – and then sometimes for longer due to out of hours events and viewings.
Display objects are assigned annual light exposure levels. An example of how this is measured is by calculating the usual opening hours of a museum, seven hours a day for six days a week over 52 weeks, therefore resulting that an item can be exposed to light 2,184 hours a year. This figure is then multiplied by the recommended light intensity to give the lux hours. So, a sensitive item with a maximum of 50 lux will have a rough total of 100,000 lux hours.
Some institutions have already started to rethink their approach to object rotation to reduce the total time of exposure to light. These include rotating items from storage or turning pages of books or manuscripts on display.
The most effective strategy in reducing light damage is to reduce illuminance and time of exposure. The longer you leave an item exposed to light, the more damage it will do.
An example of this is at The Edvard Munch Museum in Oslo, where there is an installation displaying three versions of ‘The Scream’: a painting, a print, and a drawing. To protect the works only one is displayed at any one time, whilst the other two are covered. It is programmed to automatically rotate hourly to reduce exposure (lux hours) to each piece whilst creating a sense of mystery and intrigue at the same time.
A similar approach should become more widely adopted in museums because when implemented in this way it does not only benefit the artwork but also the visitor.
Using lighting control systems linked to sensors and timers will reduce total exposure time as the display object will only be illuminated when someone is in the gallery or viewing the display object. Turning off or dimming luminaires that are illuminating artworks will also reduce the energy consumption of galleries throughout the show, therefore not only protecting the works but also resulting in lower energy consumption.
Another benefit from the advances in lighting control technology is the use of digital controls, such as smartphones, tablets, and computers, to manage lighting systems remotely. This allows lighting designers to adjust lighting levels and colours from anywhere, making it possible to tailor lighting to specific needs and preferences. Also, it allows curators or gallery assistants to recall pre-programmed scenes that could, for example, raise the light level on a particular artwork whilst giving a talk or tour.
Perhaps with the recent technological improvements within the lighting industry, such as the seamless incorporation of digital motion sensors, timers, and in particular smart control systems, a case can be made to encourage museums to begin to adopt such elements. Along with the move away from halogen light sources, is it now time for the lighting conservation guidelines for sensitive artifacts to be re-written?
Changing light, not build, to create more sustainable exhibition spaces
Pippa Nissen, Director at Nissen Richards Studio, discusses the role that lighting can play in creating more sustainable exhibition spaces.
When we’re designing a new exhibition or gallery, we have to think about how to transform a space as much as possible for maximum impact. We’re constantly under pressure to create something new for repeat visitors, so that each time they come it is a different experience. For temporary shows, the accent is on value for money, while a blockbuster show needs to come complete with ‘selfie moments’ and visually rich displays.
In the past, exhibition design was notoriously wasteful, with every aspect effectively new-build. As we face the future, we are rightly being asked to design more sustainably and also take more responsibility ourselves for thinking laterally and questioning the sustainable credentials of everything we specify. We are thinking increasingly about how to change the appearance of something without adding much in the way of a physical build – and how lighting and graphics can help us achieve this. The aim is for minimal build, but with the ability to change the way it looks and feels throughout a day, or even during a single visit. We can add colour and graphic surfaces, which are easy ways to create dramatic effects, but it’s even better if we can pair this with a clever lighting kit to enable multiple layers of change.
Over the years, I have enjoyed working with lighting design that empowers change and can adapt. I have also been drawn to working with theatre consultants, who have a history of storytelling, which draws from my studies and work in theatre, using light to tell a story and imply all sorts of things – another place, memory, emotion, or idea. I have worked a lot over the last 20 years with Zerlina Hughes, founder of Studio ZNA. We first met on a theatre project all those years ago and I enjoy how she seems to feel the spaces and responds in a very creative way to creating dynamism through light.
A really early project we worked on together perfectly encapsulated lighting’s transformative power. It wasn’t a museum project, but a bar called Liquorish in East Dulwich, where the brief was about adapting through the day from the space being a cafe for young mothers in the morning, to hosting business lunches later and then transforming in the evening into a nightclub vibe with a DJ and dancing. We developed a shifting series of lights on a scene set, that accomplished just that. During the day, we used linear lights paired with windows, and long new roof lights, with smaller interior windows within the spaces. Later on, these lights became stronger, and started to take over from the natural daylight through the windows. Another set of light bulbs were designed to be closer to the tables to give the flattering feeling of candle light. A larger installation of lights in a double height space then became a feature, and achieved a pin-point effect – almost like a still night sky. At a certain time, deep colours started to emerge as lines of colour throughout, with gelled lights on edges of windows and in niches starting to shine, so that the whole space became filled with coloured light. Lighting alone permitted a seamless transition to totally different atmospheres.
Since then, the first bit of kit I now always ensure appears in our cost plan is a lighting control system. It’s fairly pricey, but it means that the space is adaptable to different modes and situations. I am always interested in lighting that considers surfaces, colour, and movement, rather than in the fittings per se. In reality, I rarely use visible fittings, unless bespoke or picking up on shapes or materials we’re using elsewhere in the architecture. I want to think about how a space feels and can adapt. We encourage lights that are small and hidden – and that can change and complement stories. We create troughs and niches to hide lights and conceal fittings.
A more recent project, as a permanent gallery space where the client wanted repeat visitors and the ability to easily adapt, but without large additional costs, was Opplyst at the National Library of Norway. Again, change was achieved to a large degree through lighting, making the space feel magical via a dynamic control system. Coloured, gelled lights shift really slowly across the space, creating a subtle shift between warmer and cooler moods. As you enter, the first experience is a series of light boxes that are pure white, creating a visual ‘reset’ break from outside. Each object is then spot-lit, encouraging visitors to feel as if the only thing they are looking at is each object, with interpretation hidden within the showcases, or subtly placed on light sheets alongside. The beauty of light sheets, when used with a perspex diffuser, is that many different materials can be placed on top with a printed text, and dimmed right down so that, like a kindle, it appears just lit. The text can be reprinted easily but always looks good.
For us light is a boost to give more impact, and also an emotional connection to our build – as a way of enhancing and changing people’s experiences and creating a theatrical twist. So, my tip would be, when thinking about a new exhibition project, to consider carefully how much of a theatrical change can be made through pairing lighting with architectural moves, and then allowing different effects to be revealed slowly through time, so that the space isn’t still and one-dimensional, but has a dynamic and changing appearance. This feels like value added to the client, while visitors feel that they are in an ‘experience’ and the client ends up with a more flexible space that can be used in different ways. They can even add a party mode to the scene setter, so that spaces can be used by corporate or private clients in a different way as a revenue stream. No extra build, but a completely different atmosphere. This feels like the future – and a sustainable one too.
David Morgan review: Simes IP System
Since its launch at Light + Building last year, the IP System from Simes has been causing a buzz among the lighting design community. Here, David Morgan takes a closer look at the range to see what all the fuss is about.
It is exciting and unusual to review a lighting system that combines a unique combination of features. The IP system from Simes is such a system. It combines an exterior rated silicone encapsulated diffuse linear lighting system with an exterior rated track system for projectors and accent lighting luminaires that can be added or removed along the length of the system.
Simes is based in Franciacorta, in the Brescia region of Italy north of Milan. The current firm was founded in 1973, although the origins of the company date back to 1957, when Edigio Botti started a metals machining company at his home. The company expanded and, in 1972, purchasing the Bruno Magnani company that specialised in exterior lighting. The company name was changed to Simes a year later and the first new product launched was a redesigned die cast bulkhead luminaire that was offered in a range of bright colours.
Under the management of Edigio Botti’s son, Roberto Botti, who has run the firm since 1990, the company has continued to grow and now employs 120 people. With sales distribution in more than 60 countries, around 70% of sales are outside Italy. All of the company’s components are designed in-house, and most are sourced from trusted local suppliers in the region.
The company has worked with a variety of high-profile designers to create new products since 1986. In 2016, I reviewed for arc magazine the innovative Simes Ghost concrete integrated range, designed by Marc Sadler.
The latest development from Simes is the IP System, which was unveiled at Light + Building in 2022 and has received an enthusiastic response from the lighting design community.
The original concept for an exterior IP rated track system was developed by Roberto Botti over many years. The eureka moment was apparently revealed in a dream when he realised the opal silicone used to encapsulate exterior linear lighting systems could also be used as a gasket in a waterproof track system. The Simes in-house design team got to work and quickly developed a working prototype to prove the design approach.
At the heart of the IP System is a custom flexible LED tape fitted with tight pitch LEDs. This produces the light output for the linear diffuse lighting system branded as the Highlighter by Simes. Running either side of the LED circuit are two additional copper conductor strips, which are used to power the plug-in projectors and other luminaires. The side conductors have a separate power supply from the central LED strip enabling each circuit to be independently controlled. A complex dual material silicone extrusion provides the diffusion for the LEDs and aims to seal the tape from water ingress.
The electrical connections between the plug-in luminaires and the conductive copper strips are made with sharp pins that pierce through the silicone diffuser without leaving space for water ingress. The silicone extrusion is housed in an aluminium extrusion, which gives the system it’s strength and rigidity. The plug-in luminaires snap onto the aluminium extrusion with stainless steel clips. Extruded aluminium side panels are then clipped onto the body extrusion to give a clean, finished appearance.
The Highlighter is available in both surface mount and ceiling recessed versions with lengths up to four metres. The system can be cut to a 50mm module, but this has to be done by Simes during production and cannot be undertaken on site. The Highlighter without any additional snap-in luminaires is rated at IP65. When the snap-in luminaires are first added, the IP rating remains at IP65 but once these luminaires are removed and then moved to a new position the rating for the whole system drops to IP54. I assume that the puncture holes in the silicone extrusion do not completely heal and may provide a water ingress path to the LED tape.
The snap-in luminaire installation is a little more complicated than I expected and requires the use of a patented, moulded jig to ensure that the contact pins pierce the silicone extrusion perfectly perpendicular to the surface. To protect the contact pins and ensure they are not distorted, a specially designed moulded cover is provided for each snap-in luminaire. Removing the luminaires from the track is also slightly difficult as the stainless-steel clips are an aggressive fit yet seem to allow the projectors in particular, to wobble slightly. It helps to remove the side panels before removing and repositioning the snap-in luminaires. For the ceiling recessed version this would mean removing the system from the ceiling before moving any of the snap in luminaires.
The sample I was given to test worked well with the caveat that there is a knack to getting the snap-in luminaires to make contact through the silicone extrusion. The lit effect from both the linear Highlighter and the snap-in luminaires was good with attractive, clean distributions.
The maximum wattage for all the snap-in luminaires per circuit is 60W, which may be limiting in some situations.
The range of plug-in luminaires includes two sizes of adjustable projectors: 5.4W and 8.6W. The larger size incorporates a zoom lens. Both sizes can be aimed and locked with grub screws. Snoot versions are also available.
In addition to the adjustable projectors, the IP System includes two styles of fixed downlight. A rectilinear wide flood type design in two sizes rated at 4.2W and 8.4W, and a radius end type with narrower optics rated at 4.2W.
A cylindrical 4.2W pendant available in flood and wide-flood distributions completes the current range of add-on luminaires.
The design of the system is well-detailed from an appearance point of view. However, construction of the luminaires involves the use of hard setting resins, which will make servicing, reuse, or recycling of the die cast and machined aluminium components problematic at the end of life, so the system does not fit into a circular economy model particularly well. It will be interesting to see how the system copes with high levels of heat and moisture in challenging environments over the long term.
The IP System is another example of the innovative and quite daring Simes design approach to luminaire development and the initial positive reaction from specifiers indicates that it will prove to be a commercial success.
GLA: Regulation and legislation of the Circular Economy
The GreenLight Alliance speaks to several members about the obstacles and opportunities to push towards a circular economy within lighting.
The lighting industry has begun to lean into its environmental responsibilities. It has far to go, but it’s happening. What more can be done? When the topic comes up, very often it is followed by a discussion on the associated legislation. This month we enquired of a few GreenLight Alliance members how they feel on the subject of legislation, asking “where are the obstacles and opportunities in terms of accelerating transition to a circular economy within our industry?”
Nigel Harvey, CEO, Recolight
Many companies within the lighting industry are undoubtedly starting to adopt circular economy principles. That is being driven by a growing awareness of the need for real sustainability which goes beyond energy efficiency, and embraces material efficiency as well. Many manufacturers, specifiers, and end users are now building circularity within their products. But to enable us to go further and faster, we undoubtedly need legislation and enforcement to drive the change.
That legislation should incentivise manufacturers and end users to do the right thing, and should also include mandatory requirements for products that are more “circular”.
Incentivise reuse and remanufacture
The easiest way to apply circularity in almost any situation is to keep existing product in use for longer, but with component upgrades to maximise energy efficiency. And although there is now significant interest in remanufacture within the lighting industry, it still only comprises a few percent, at best, of the total market. Government is already giving consideration to amending the WEEE regulations to recognise and reward remanufacture – possibly via a reduction in the WEEE financing obligations. But that should be extended to include fiscal measures that make reuse and remanufacture even more attractive to end users.
Incentivise ecodesign
Designing new products to embed greater longevity, durability, and upgradeability is also important. The government is currently considering incentives that could “ecomodulate” WEEE costs – with lower WEEE fees for “good” products and higher fees for “bad” products. The system is not without its challenges, but may well have merit.
Changes could also include product standards with a mandatory percentage of reused materials – particularly plastics. The painful reality is that unless recycled plastic is used in the manufacture of new products, the need for recycling at all comes into question.
Standardise the metrics
The industry is awash with a multiplicity of environmental product declarations, life cycle assessments, and similar. Knowing which to adopt is undoubtedly a challenge for all in the sector. Government could provide much needed direction and focus by encouraging or mandating a few methodologies.
Packaging
Defra has already legislated to make producers responsible for the full costs of collection and recycling of consumer packaging waste. For companies selling packaged consumer products, this will mean a significant increase in compliance costs next year. This will act as a strong incentive to reduce the amount of packaging used. Options should also be explored to extend this to commercial packaging.
Enforcement
New legislation is only effective when it is enforced. For far too long, there has been an underbelly of non-compliant product sold within our industry. With the continued growth of online marketplaces, that underbelly has swollen hugely in recent years. It is totally unacceptable for UK based manufacturers and sellers to comply with legislation that is flagrantly ignored by those based mainly in the Far East, but whose products are frequently stocked within the UK and sold via online marketplaces. Any new legislation must make online intermediaries responsible for demonstrating the compliance of product sold via their platforms. Such approaches have already been implemented for some legislation in France, Spain and Germany. The UK should do likewise.
Tim Bowes, Head of Lighting Application, Whitecroft
Over the last three years, I have gained new qualifications, learned new skills, educated and learned from peers within the lighting and wider construction sector, forged new relationships, and contributed to presentations and guidance documents within the field of circularity. Many of the conversations have been inspiring, with the enthusiasm and realisation by many of the opportunity that the circular economy can bring to our sector. However, many of these activities and solutions proposed by our industry continue to happen on the fringe of current market activity.
If we are to remove the obstacles and create opportunities to realise the potential to move from a linear economy to, as Ellen Macarthur said in 2013, “an industrial economy that is restorative by intention and design” at scale, transformational change is needed.
There are many obstacles to the adoption of the circular economy, such as financial constraints, timeframes, lack of infrastructure, cultural, and current business practices. For some, the only way to make this change is through legislation.
Governments are in a position where they are both one of the actors and a key enabler to delivering this change. However, their opportunity to influence others goes far beyond simply legislation. Below are some examples of the ways governments at all levels can support change at scale and address some of the obstacles outlined above.
Provide a test bed
Alongside policy frameworks and legislation, governments can create the market, provide clear leadership, foster partnerships, provide financial support, and support learning. When you consider 14% of all EU spending is from public procurement, and 25% within the UK, they could provide a space for many in the built environment to work and demonstrate how the circular economy can work at scale.
Taxation
Whether the motivation is social, economic, or environmental, one of the highest sources of value creation identified by the Ellen Macarthur Foundation (see Figure 1) is to maintain and prolong what you have. Today most refurbishment work in the UK incurs a VAT rate of 20%, whereas most new build work attracts a 0% rate of VAT. Campaigns, such as ‘RetroFirst’ launched by the Architects Journal back in 2019, are in place to encourage Governments to cut VAT on refurbishment, repair and maintain to 5% or less. A similar taxation is already in place in Sweden.
Rather than simply change a single policy, a policy mix can be used to amplify any change. Working in tandem with preferential taxation, could the ‘retro-first policy’ proposed recently by the City of London, support the growth in not just the re-use of structural elements but the services that are already in the building, such as lighting?
Urban Mining
Typical LED production contains up to 96 rare earth elements, five processes, and four different factories. In addition to this, 27% of the emissions for an LED occur at its disposal. With risks around geo-political events, growth of low carbon technologies, cost volatility, demand to reduce embodied carbon and inevitable increase in LED waste, will there be a need, desire and opportunity to move towards urban mining? This change would not be easy, and current infrastructure and financial models do not make this viable. Could governments therefore take a lead in identifying LED as a new form of e-waste, and alongside other low carbon technologies. put in place the investment and reverse logistics needed to make the re-use of these materials feasible?
Material Banks
Of the 200 tonnes of waste produced in Great Britain, 60% is produced by the construction industry. In a recent article published by the NLA, it was highlighted that although 90% of materials are recycled from construction sites, only 1% is re-used. While there is some work being done by the likes of Recolight to create material banks for lighting, government intervention and implementation of technological innovation could work alongside a change in the way we design and build in supporting the structural and systemic changes needed to connect those who want with those who have at scale.
While governments will play a key role in the delivery of the circular economy, if we are to make the existing model obsolete, we cannot rely on legislation alone to do this. We all have a part to play in breaking down the barriers and realise the opportunity of the circular economy. Perhaps this will require us all to embrace change, collaborate, listen and inform others and challenge what we know and want to do today to change tomorrow.
Bob Bohannon, Head of Policy & Academy, The LIA
When trying to create change it’s frequent for people to say: “you should change this and here’s why”. I’m guilty of this myself, but on the whole, this approach doesn’t work. In reality, it’s all about motivation and incentives. Introducing circular economy regulations will certainly act as a motivation, but it does bring other important questions into play. Circular Economy is not just about repairability: it’s about maximising the utility of extracted natural resources, keeping them at their highest value for the longest time. So, it’s also about durability.
Lighting is complex, we are not a white goods industry with a limited range of product types, we have hundreds of product types used in hundreds of different applications – how does regulation turn that complexity into simplicity and good law? The Lighting Europe team are trying to do precisely this, and it’s not easy.
You then have the level playing field question: lighting is already highly regulated, if additional circular economy regulation is introduced then there must be an effective market surveillance mechanism in place, and I don’t see any evidence that government has that. Any regulation that places a burden on competitiveness, with no mechanism for market surveillance, does not pass government’s own test for better regulation. Poor regulation disadvantages the law-abiding and does not touch those who flout the law.
I might be sounding negative, but that is not the case. As an industry, we must move away from CAT A fit-outs, or products value engineered so far that not only do they not last, but they are irreparable when they fail. This might be economically sustainable for those involved, but it is not environmentally sustainable – so we either need the industry to adopt self-regulation, for example, TM66 (lent further credibility by its third-party LIA/CIBSE certification under TM66 Assured), or accept the inevitability of government regulation, and hope that it is good regulation without unintended consequences (MEPS is an example of how not to do it).
TM66 is an excellent example of a self-regulating scheme that combines motivation and incentives. The motivation is to improve your product’s circularity by engaging with its assessment. Those using it all report that the moment they start getting their first scores, the first question they ask is ‘how do I get a better score?’ This is exactly what a sustainability metric should be, a transition tool that helps plan and report on the transition and direction of travel.
The incentive is that as TM66 is a cross-industry initiative, its adoption by specifiers is also growing the demand for circular products.
Circularity is inevitable, we lived in a circular world for generations, the move to a disposable economy has been far more recent and the negative effects are all too clear. We have a good self-regulation tool in TM66, and I would not stand in the way of regulation but with the two caveats that it must be good and be supported by effective market compliance – the LIA would be happy to work with DEFRA and DESNZ on both.
Dr. Irene Mazzei, KTP Associate, Stoane Lighting
In March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finalised the Synthesis Report for its sixth assessment, in which data suggests that humanity is still quite far from limiting global warming to 1.5 °C – or even 2°C by 2030. Figure 2, taken from the report, shows that if no changes are made to currently implemented policies, the Greenhouse Gas emissions will keep increasing, causing global warming to reach 3.2 °C by 2100, with catastrophic effects to Earth’s ecosystems and society.
Industry produces up to a third of the net anthropogenic GHG emissions, with steel, concrete and plastic manufacturing being major contributors. The introduction of more sustainable corporate practices, such as replacing materials with more environmentally-friendly alternatives, switching to renewable energy providers and limiting or repurposing manufacturing waste, associated with the application of the principles of the circular economy, can help substantially reduce emissions deriving from industrial activities.
The lighting industry is starting to adopt several of these strategies; however, at present, positive actions are mostly driven by internal inputs in companies that want to take steps towards greener business strategies. Looking at these internal inputs, it is also possible to identify opportunities in using and promoting sustainability assessment strategies. Quantifying environmental impacts is the first step for a company to understand where the emissions come from and what to change to reduce them. From simpler assessments, such as quantifying the embodied carbon of products or their circularity (see TM65 and TM66), to more complex Life Cycle Assessments leading to Environmental Product Declarations, being able to communicate clearly and transparently the emissions associated with products is definitely an advantageous skill for a company.
However, in addition to internal initiatives, a greater “push” could be provided by external inputs coming from policymakers. In the European landscape, the last piece of the “Circular Economy and Consumers Package” puzzle was added on 22 March with the adoption of the directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims. The directive – now being discussed by the EU Parliament and Council – has the objectives of: empowering consumers with more trustworthy environmental claims on products; rewarding businesses that take genuine positive actions in improving their company’s sustainability, as opposed to those who use green claims to “greenwash” their unsustainable agendas; and establishing common rules and practices for assessing and reporting environmental information of products. Other key points of the circular economy packages include the European Commission’s ESPR proposal, the Eco-design and energy labelling working plan, and the “right to repair” directive proposal. The latter consists of a proposal recommending repair practices over total replacement of products (when practically and legally possible), especially if the costs for replacement are higher than or equal to the costs of repair.
An important requirement of the publication of environmental information as an EPD, is the application of Product Category Rules (PCRs) and/or Product Specific Rules (PSRs) to the LCA. A robust and comprehensive set of rules specific for luminaires is provided by the Program Operator PEP Ecopassport. Their lighting PSRs make sure to cover all relevant aspects of these products so that environmental impacts are evaluated in a complete and consistent way.
The progress made by the industry in the field of sustainability is undeniable, no matter if coming from internal initiatives or necessitated by incoming policies. However, some challenges still stand in the way of sustainability, some of them affecting the entire sustainability and life cycle assessment practice and not only the lighting industry. To mention just a few examples, harmonisation and data sourcing are two factors playing an important role. Using a number of different sustainability assessments – that produce results that are not comparable with each other – does not help the cause. In addition to this, using the same methodology but collecting data from different sources will also produce results that shouldn’t be compared, as stated in article 4(1), paragraph (a) of the Green Claims proposal. The introduction of rules to promote a more systematic and consistent approach within the industry – as done, for example by the PEP Ecopassport PSR initiative – will help reduce the variability of results in the future, leading to more harmonised practices and a “level playing field” for businesses in the industry using sustainability assessments.
Finally, a higher level of alignment within the industry would be beneficial to the actors asking questions and those providing the answers on sustainability matters, such as circularity. This is why it’s important to communicate transparently on what the environmental and performance objectives are and ask/provide environmental assessments of products accordingly.
In the responses from the contributors, we see we have a circular economy assessment metric, we have embodied carbon assessment methodologies, product specific rules for LCA of luminaires, business model developments to embrace circular economy opportunities, companies and organisations to assess and validate claims, industry led work on standardisation of remanufacturing processes for luminaires and so much more.
The industry is showing encouraging initiative and striding out ahead. If one looks at assessment of products for circularity as a broad catch-all there is one good methodology, TM66, we now also see narrowed focus on durability, lifetime and repairability separately within circularity. Within impact assessment we see measurement of different impacts, embodied vs whole life carbon as an example. We also see parallel, sometimes overlapping methodologies in impact assessment. With such progress in the lighting industry and built environment the challenge facing us is to hone approaches, select preferred methodologies and through groups such as the GreenLight Alliance and industry associations make proposals to policy makers on regulation that works for the industry and delivers on the objectives to deliver meaningful sustainability improvements in our industry. Encouragingly, this is happening already.
Designers Mind: Happy to Perform
Designers Mind contributor Martina Frattura discusses “self-actualisation”, and the importance of postive mindsets on productivity.
When a title can be read in more than one way, it is up to the experience of each reader to assess how to approach it. In this case, for those familiar with the term ‘performance society’, where we use a good deal of self-regulation to stay busy and deeply productive, it may not have a positive meaning.
In fact, it is often implied that productivity, the apparent child of tight schedules, is not entirely related to the happiness of the person who is called upon to perform the task, even though various studies now prove otherwise.
If we consider the balance between reward and emotional values as an inescapable feature of maintaining self-control, every time we tackle a time-consuming task (e.g. a delivery, a presentation, etc.) we take some energy away from it.
Self-control, in fact, serves not only to avoid major temptations, but also to tune our behaviour according to the conditions we face in each specific moment of our daily lives.
And what happens when, in the grip of a pressing need, we become too hard on ourselves?
The social psychologist Baumeister called it Ego-Depletion, the state of diminished resources given by a high request of self-control. Considering that we have a certain amount of energy that can be dedicated to deal with these challenges, when our mental resources are engaged, our capacity to regulate our thoughts diminishes, therefore we have less control over our emotions as well.
In other words, it seems that we may suffer emotional instability after being forced too hard on a specific request. Any coincidental moment during working hours, for example, which may not find us particularly prepared in terms of our psychophysical condition at that particular moment to deal with it, and inversely more attracted to a series of distracting temptations, leads to a weakening of the mental capacity to override negative impulses and thoughts, which may also affect the control of our emotions.
The strength of positive emotions
An emotion can be described both as short-term and long-term affective states. These, respectively, refer first to emotions that occupy the foreground of our consciousness, second to moods that appear in the background of it. They are the responses to external stimuli as well as the internal mental representations, and in both cases, they are compared to previous feelings stored in our memories.
Studies, and eventually our own direct experience, have shown that we need positive emotions to overcome any drained state.
The key to understanding why they have such a power over our mental strength is that emotions are able to recollect past feelings and give them the power to trigger them again in the present time.
It is likely that in a moment of tiredness or difficulty, one finds it difficult to consciously open oneself to a positive thought, but when we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves: a conscious decision not to let the positivity be switched off.
A brief pleasant memory is enough to trigger a domino effect of positivity. Being happy creates a cue for similar emotions, creating a loop that sticks with good thinking. In simple words, people in a good mood tend to see things in a positive light.
However, the main obstacle to this is what, nowadays, we call Tunnel Vision, that is the exclusive focus on a particular emotion. As Fredrickson suggests, sometimes we just miss the big picture by getting stuck on thoughts that bring us acting and feeling in a certain way. We create ourselves an opposite loop that instead of helping us to gain our strength back, forces us towards one direction, given by our temporary inability to go over our own perspective.
The role of rituals in self-actualisation
The perception we have of ourselves, turns out to be key to overcome these obstacles. We are all different and erratic, sensitive to what is outside and what belongs to our personal history. The discovery of our true self and its expression and development are necessary factors for a healthy performance and respect for our wellbeing.
Of course, people will always be permeable to what is outside and the influence of the environment on people’s behaviour may help recovering from mental fatigue, helping us to think positively or negatively, but there might be more.
Letting negativity hold the reins of our moment is, in fact, a possible habit of our mind: a ritual. Often, in fact, it is automatic to put all our attention on what is exhausting our mental energies, without considering what we could do to get out of that, perhaps superficial state of consciousness.
Making room, voluntarily, for positivity will be rewarded with renewed energy for the self: vitality.
Vitality is defined as physical and mental energy; in fact it is linked to both physical and psychological wellbeing. It can arise from the feeling of freedom, autonomy, support and intrinsic motivation, and is associated with feelings of vigour, positive affect and calm energy.
The term energy is used here as what a person needs to cope with the difficulty of breaking out of a negative loop.
Experiencing vitality is what would manage to restore people from their mental depletion and help them with keeping on with the good mood, without fearing to fall in negativity again.
And our work will benefit from it too. Feeling positive also improves executive functioning, synonymous with self-regulation and higher order cognitive processes such as directed attention. The cognitive material we have access to is in fact expanded and reorganised by positive thinking: a person can start looking for possible alternative ways of relating elements, as well as being creative about the way one looks at an element.
It takes guts to be positive, but it is our superpower.
Frankie Boyle
Visual artist Frankie Boyle sits down with arc to discuss her unique approach to light, and opens up on how her neurodiversity has shaped her career.
In the lighting design world, there is a widespread understanding of the impact of lighting on emotions; how an effective lighting design can evoke particular feelings or communicate a certain message to those who experience it.
For British light artist Frankie Boyle though, this understanding came at a much earlier age. Diagnosed with Developmental Learning Disorder (DLD) and dyslexia at the age of seven, Boyle struggled to understand language as a form of communication growing up. However, speaking with arc, she said that she always understood the language of light.
“I’m a big believer that if you take one sense away, your other senses grow stronger,” she said. “I became very heightened to people’s reactions towards me, picking up the finer details of body language, their energy, how they were acting, where we were.
“I became a bit of a science experiment; over a period of two years, I participated in a research project with the medical profession that involved a lot of tests to see what I’d react to and how my brain worked, often in really stark environments. I would often be put into a sensory room, where there were fibre optic lights, and my parents could see that I always wanted to be in the fibre optic room, I always wanted to do things with light.
“I realised that I very much had a heightened sensitivity and receptivity to light and how it was interacting within that space. I subconsciously had this feeling of knowing how lighting could make people feel comforted or seen, or allowed them to move through spaces easier, and I didn’t really know why until I went to university and started to understand more about the psychology and science behind it.”
Boyle studied Three-Dimensional Design at the University of Brighton, and while this was specialising with materials such as wood, metal, plastics, and ceramics, light continued to play a role. “It wasn’t until my art foundation that my tutor turned to me and said, ‘you do realise that in everything that you do, you’re involving light?’ I had even woven fairy lights through my sketchbook, but I was completely oblivious to this,” she said.
“But then in my final year, with him telling me this, I suddenly became very aware of it, and wanted to harness it, so for my final year project, I wanted to help people with dyslexia and memory disorders, like me.”
For this project, Boyle created coding for a light source that would “trigger the nervous system into a memory cortex”. “Hearing sounds or alarms suddenly make us go into fight or flight, whereas seeing a colour variation sticks within our primitive scale of understanding, our biological hardwiring of why we have colour in nature,” she continued. “That’s how I started, and how I started learning about DMX and about how to control lighting through computers; and as soon as I started to understand that whole world, it opened my eyes to a lot of exciting things.”
After leaving university, Boyle knew that she wanted to work in lighting, although she wasn’t sure what type of lighting specifically, until one fortuitous evening. “I was watching Strictly Come Dancing, and I thought the lighting was quite cool,” she recalled. “As the credits rolled, I saw the name Mark Kenyon, Lighting Director; I Googled him, found an email address, told him I thought his work was really cool, and sent him my portfolio, thinking I was never going to hear back from him. Oddly enough, he came back to me half an hour later, asking me to meet him on the set of Strictly…
“I apprenticed him for six months, followed him around, and worked on programmes with Ant and Dec, lots of shows on ITV, and I got a real buzz for live entertainment. But unfortunately at that time, I got told by numerous people within that industry that as a woman coming into it, I wouldn’t get anywhere. Their excuse was that I needed to start from the bottom and be hired as a gaffer, but nobody was going to hire a female gaffer because they need to be strong. This was before the #MeToo movement, so I thought ‘I’m not going to fight this one’, and I slid into the art department. There I could make things, and still enjoy the live entertainment.”
Alongside her work in television, Boyle was looking to develop a portable light tile that she had been working on since before university. “My parents are chefs, and when I was 18, they would ask me to work on events at front of house, serving food to people,” she said. “We were working a garden party, there was no lighting outside, and I was serving canapés to guests, and not only could I not see where I was going, nobody could see what the food was.
“So, I thought that that I would design a tray with some lights in it. I knew nothing about electricity, but I bought some LEDs, looked up how to solder a circuit, and made this light tile. It worked really nicely, and not only did it help people to see the food, but it allowed the servers to walk through the crowd, and the crowd parted around them, so I knew there was something in it. This was before university though, so it was put on the back burner as I went through university, and even when I was working in television, this tile was sitting in my shadow, haunting me.”
After six years of working in television, Boyle decided to try and do something with the tile; while working on ITV game show Tipping Point, she approached the company doing the lighting to see if they would be interested in producing the product on a larger scale.
“They went one better and said ‘why don’t we go into business together and I’ll bring you on board at my company and we can teach you about electronics, put you in the lab for six months, and once you’ve understood the lab, the electronics, the data, etc, we’ll start making these tiles.
“I thought that sounded amazing, and it was almost a dream job for about three years – I did about six months in the lab, and then I became the main creative for the company, and started creating some amazing bespoke items for Ellie Goulding, and the Brit Awards and Glastonbury Festival.”
However, it was during this time that Boyle came to a realisation that, through all the glitz and glamour of working in television, she was missing out on something. “It was amazing, but I realised that it was all done for entertainment purposes through a TV lens, but people couldn’t fully experience it in an immersive space,” she explained.
“I realised that the type of fulfilment I get from life is somebody else looking at something and thinking ‘wow, that’s cool, that’s affected me in a really positive way’. Maybe it comes from both of my parents being chefs: you’re feeding people, you’re wanting them to enjoy the experience, and what the viewer doesn’t get through TV or film is the ability to feel and experience the effect of light.
“I thought that was a bit of a waste, and that there’s this beautiful, amazing lighting that could be harnessed and used in different ways rather than being on a set that people will never really experience. So, I wanted to be able to show people the middle ground of these two lighting aspects and give people the gift of seeing the light for themselves.”
This, Boyle believes, was the launching point for her move into the light art sphere, and her desire to “create things that allow people to have awareness of themselves, and of the space around them”.
She continued: “My mission in in life is to allow people to connect with themselves. I think we live in a world that is overstimulated, everything is more and more, and what I want to do is just say ‘hey, why don’t we just have these moments of tuning back into what your thought process is, understanding the environment where you are, and being present within that time’. That’s where my work stems from.
“The more that I do my job, the more I’m trying encourage people to just be curious, and present, and aware of their environment, along with their mindset and mental health.”
However, she also feels that while she has an overriding ethos or philosophy of creating these moments of self-reflection, her work is open to interpretation.
“Everything that I do will have a reason behind it. I don’t really like art for art’s sake, or design for design’s sake, because there’s so much stuff in the world already that we’re just adding to,” she said.
“Therefore, if we are creating something, it has to have meaning and a thought process behind it. However, I don’t believe that my meaning is the meaning that everybody should take away from it. I often find it frustrating when you go to an art gallery and read a really long blurb explaining what the artist is trying to do. I don’t want to be told why you’ve done it like this, or what I should be feeling, I just want to have the effect that it releases in me. With my work, I’m trying to allow awareness of yourself. I don’t know where that awareness sits within you, so I’m not going to tell you how to feel, but I’m giving you the tools to connect with yourself in different ways.
“Creativity is evolution. It’s exploring, it’s curiosity, it’s awareness, it’s turning over every leaf to see what entices you.”
Within her body of work, that has seen her create beautiful installations for the likes of Tiffany’s, Samsung and Negroni, as well as stunning independent works of art, Boyle believes that her “USP” comes in the fact that she can “speak art and speak tech”, but within this, she has noticed an increasing demand from clients for interactivity.
“I get slightly frustrated when people always want light work to be interactive,” she said. “It’s a bit like saying to Picasso ‘why don’t your sunflowers move?’ He’s created that because that is his emotion. And that’s what I’m also trying to pull people back into. Yes, we can make things responsive, but at the same time we need to create an emotional connection. Interactivity needs to be taken away from pushing buttons to make things happen. For me, in artwork, and especially light artwork, it needs to be about that emotional connection and drawing a curiosity and an awareness and being pulled into a sort of tranquillity stream.
“A project that we’re currently working on, the client wanted me to make some sort of interactive light experience, and the first question when anyone comes to me with any type of brief or idea is ‘what are you trying to create in that user?’ What do you want the person to feel? What is the main point of this? Is it purely for Instagram? Do you want to excite someone or make someone think? What is the feeling that you’re wanting? So, it’s looking at the journey of each person and giving them a connection to the piece. You can have some interaction with it; however the interaction doesn’t need to be the reflection of you, it can just be a trigger point to start the experience.”
These questions form part of a very active creative process, in which Boyle likes to work in person, alongside the client. “I like to be face to face with the client, because I work on energies and picking up on body language and conversations – people can say whatever they want, but it’s not necessarily how they feel or what they actually want,” she said.
“I had a client once who wanted the ‘ultimate disco ball’, we kept meeting on Zoom, but it wasn’t until I met him and really understood his energy that I realised he didn’t want a disco ball, he wanted a light source. When I’m in front of the client, I can really understand what their needs are, what they’re wanting the viewer to feel.”
This approach in part is a way for Boyle to harness the “superpower” of her DLD, and it extends to the way that she will present concepts and ideas to clients. It is something that she has had to work through, particularly with those with less knowledge of DLD, but she believes there is an increasing understanding now.
“People’s understanding of DLD is still limited; dyslexia is almost known worldwide – it’s the jumbling up of letters, trying to read the words on the page and communicating that – whereas DLD is a jumbling up of language. So, the way that I learned is through sounds – I didn’t learn through spelling because in the English language, it has no rules. That’s what I like about electricity, it’s right or it’s wrong.
“I had to really use that to my potential, because let’s be honest, someone with severe dyslexia and DLD like me is not much good to anyone that needs you to read and write, so I had to make my own path.
“When I first started, everything that I wanted to do was through voice notes, and people wouldn’t listen to voice notes to begin with. So, I was trying to write emails that I thought made sense, but I’d get a response saying it doesn’t make any sense. But the more I got recognised, people were more accepting of voice notes, and I could speed up through my career because people understood that this is how I communicate.
“There is still an expectation though, although we are becoming more accepting, we are still just as judgemental and presumptuous as we have always been. People need to be told that this is the situation, because sometimes they can judge quickly, especially if they don’t have anyone dyslexic in their life.
“When I’m pitching for projects, every pitch that you’ll ever have to make has to be this beautiful language poetry, but I used to get myself so tongue tied in this poetry of what I was trying to say, that all I wanted to do was talk to someone about it, so I turned the whole idea on its head and tried to avoid the written word like the plague within my pitches, come up with sketches, have the images but then have a video of myself explaining each image. And I’d open each pitch by saying ‘due to being successfully dyslexic, I will be talking through this pitch’. So, in straight away saying my disability, being up front with it – a lot of people in my world try to hide it, but not only do I not want to hide it, I want people to understand what I’m talking about and raise awareness of these disabilities.”
Raising awareness has in recent years become a big factor in Boyle’s work, particularly during the Covid lockdown in 2020. “Through lockdown, obviously all my work fell away, and I didn’t know if the world was going to come back at all, never mind work for a light artist of all things. So therefore, I needed to problem solve, and I noticed when on my one walk a day that people were working, living, breathing and relaxing all in one room, but that people didn’t understand how to differentiate that space up. We needed to start switching things up and understanding how to feel within our homes to change that energy, so I thought that I would start up a vlog and talk, tell people how to do the lighting in their homes.
“But if you’re anything like me, you need to understand how something works before you get told what to do, so I decided to start from the very beginning and explain how light works, why the sky is blue, why we get connected to things. And then once we have that information, I can go into what we needed to do in the home. So, I did a few videos, but then life started back up again. But I wanted to keep going with the vlogs – I was getting a lot of interest, and Google asked me to do some talks for them, and teach their employees about the science of light, which was a real highlight.”
From here, Boyle is hoping that she can continue to use her platform to raise awareness and understanding about DLD and neurodiversity, as well as the impact of lighting, particularly on neurodiverse people, channelling her “superpower” for the greater good.
“When you’re neurodiverse, you have different sensitivities to different senses,” Boyle continued. “Having an awareness of people having neurodiversity is something that I’m a real advocate for and pushing for. And I do try and allow people to know that about myself quite early on. I use it as a superpower because I know that I think differently in certain situations, and I can see things in a different way.
“When I’m in a space, I have two ways of looking at life: I have a general chit chat, communication, and then I switch to this other form, this other sense that I have of purely looking at the reflections of the lights in people’s faces, how they’re moving, what the light picks up, and I become super heightened to that. I think that’s what allows me to be good at my job, looking at the general details and also the finer details.
“Lighting in general needs to be understood more and respected more though, even by architects. It doesn’t matter what type of room you have; let’s say you had a blank concrete square, you could change that, and the emotion of that space, instantly just through the lighting. There’s a lot of money in furnishing, but it doesn’t matter what you bring in, if the lighting isn’t good, none of those furnishings, none of those elements, will be enhanced. Everything revolves around lighting.
“Without light, we don’t have vision, and vision is our strongest sense. It’s just tapping into the subconscious language that we all speak, across all nationalities.”
Indeed, from speaking with Boyle and seeing her impressive body of work, it is clear that she is fluent in the vibrant, emotive, and beautiful language of light.
