Public defence of doctoral dissertation: Johanna Enger

Welcome to the public defence of Johanna Enger's documented artistic research project In Search of the Measurable, the Immeasurable and the Elusive Experience of Light.

The research project explores light as a spatial and sensory experience. The dissertation seeks to bridge the gap between design practice and scientific research, and to contribute new perspectives on how the perceived qualities of light can be understood and given a language in practice.

A central point of departure is the lack of an established terminology for perceived lighting quality. The work develops new ways of describing and analysing perceived lighting quality in spatial environments, and examines how this often elusive knowledge can gain a foothold in the built environment through design and planning processes. Through experimental studies, a semantic method for investigating the spatial experience of light environments is introduced: LENS (Light Experience & Nomenclature Structure). The method is based on the relationship between perceived light level and perceived contrast, and on how they interact to shape the atmosphere of a space. The work also explores the intersection of the measurable and the immeasurable, as well as that between different knowledge traditions, through light.

DEPARTMENT
Department of Design, Interior architecture and Visual communications

OPPONENT
Ellen Kathrine Hansen, AAU Copenhagen

EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Martin Avila, Konstfack
Peter Boyce, RPI, Troy, US
Stavroula Angeliki, KTH, Stockholm

SUPERVISORS
Hillevi Hemphälä, LTH, Lund
Lisa Tan, Konstfack

CHAIR
Mathew Gregory, Konstfack