Description/Abstract:
ABSTRACT
LIGHT AS AN ART FORM
Joan Webster Price
The document is in three parts. Part one is concerned with pioneers in light media and the basis of their work. Among the artists considered are, A. Wallace Rimington, Thomas Wilfred and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. The evolution of the media from color music to light art is discussed in relation to the aesthetic considerations of the early artists.
Part two deals with the contemporary use of light as an art form. Photo-kinetics, standard forms of electrical illumination in environmental compositions using fluorescent and incandescent lighting, neon constructions and optical lasers are treated aesthetically. Chryssa, Martial Raysse, Stephen Antonakos, Gunther Uecker, Julio Le Parc are among the artists whose works are used for illustrative material of the various techniques.
The third part deals with the considerations of light as an art form useful to the college teacher. The visual disciplines of the traditional artist are expanded to include new techniques and equipment. In a workshop type experience emphasis has been placed on aesthetic concepts, environmental situations, experiments in projecting devices, lighting units including dicroic spots, strobe lights, incandescent, fluorescent and neon. Devices for producing special effects with light and motors are also discussed.