Lighting and video: two unquestionably visual art forms which started apart yet have grown inexorably together in recent years as technology has allowed designers from each field to cross over into the other. How far will this crossover go? Are the two fields ultimately destined to merge into one?
Two of the leading practitioners in their fields feel this is a topic worthy of debate – and will be holding just such a debate, with the provocative title “Video and Lighting Are Destined To Merge”, on Sunday 13th September at 3pm, as part of the Education & Learning Programme at PLASA 09 at Earls Court in London.
The debate’s instigators and hosts are leading entertainment lighting supplier White Light, which through its adoption of a wide range of LED lighting technology increasingly finds itself involved with video content and media servers, and United Visual Artists, a British-based collective whose work spans the architectural installation, live performance and responsive installation fields and often incorporates lighting as well as video and other media into its work.
Structured as a formal debate, the session will include speakers for and against the motion. The speakers come from across a wide range of ‘visual’ disciplines; Tony Award® winning lighting designer and Association of Lighting Designers Chairman Rick Fisher, lighting designer Johanna Town, architectural lighting designer Ben Kreukniet from the United Visual Artists, technical production specialist Matthew Clutterham from Matt-LX, Technical Director of the Pixel Addicts, Dave Green, and the designer of the BB7, Chris Ewington from I-pix. The debate will be chaired by the industry veteran Brian Croft, who has already witnessed many technological and design changes over a fifty year career that has spanned theatre, rock-and-roll and much more.
“The use of the word video in the debate title is deliberately provocative,” notes Fanny Baratto, Marketing Manager for White Light, “with the world ‘visuals’ perhaps better encapsulating the range of activities being debated – perhaps ‘visuals designer’ is the job title we’ll end up with? This is exactly the kind of discussion we hope this debate will trigger, and we hope that all future visuals designers, whatever field they currently find themselves working in and whichever job title they currently employ, will join us for what we’re sure will be a lively debate.”
“Video and Lighting Are Destined To Merge: A Debate” will take place at 3pm on Sunday 13th September in The Victoria Rooms Earls Court Two at PLASA 09.
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