For three days, more than fifty students from ALBA and LAU, as well as emerging lighting professionals, participated in a light installation workshop led by Sherine Saroufim. (Credit: ALBA)
At ALBA, transformed into a dynamic testing ground, excitement is at its peak on this Wednesday, June 8. For three days, over 50 students from two universities, the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and the Lebanese American University (LAU), as well as emerging lighting professionals, participated in a light installation workshop led by Sherine Saroufim, a lighting designer, educator, member of the board of the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), and ambassador of Women in Lighting (WIL) for Lebanon.
"This workshop focuses on the creative, technical, and contextual exploration of light through large-scale installations," explained Saroufim. "Today, lighting is still too often considered secondary or purely technical, whereas it is at the heart of the spatial experience. We wanted, through this workshop, to create a platform where students could physically interact with light and material – an experience that goes beyond traditional classroom teaching – and especially to show them that being a lighting designer is a real profession and an essential element in the design of any architectural creation."
After an initial day dedicated to a basic understanding of lighting, different sources, and materials, students were invited to draw on large independent boards a "scribble" of colors and lines "as a way to let them externalize their tensions and express their emotions," said Saroufim. These drawings will later serve as a starting point for the creation of each group's projects, which will be inspired by a motif to execute its installation in practice.
Over two days, students divided into groups of four immersed themselves in an experience that encouraged them "to push their creative limits," especially considering light not only "as a technical component," but also as a "narrative and experiential support that emanates and reflects emotions," she stated.
Light as a source of art, inspirations, and emotions
At the end of the last day, a jury composed of Prof. Fadlallah Dagher, dean of ALBA, Dr. Amardeep Dugar, lighting researcher, educator and founder of Lighting Research & Design, as well as representatives from the design and lighting sectors, were invited to discover the artistic creations of these students. Wandering from one room to another, they listened to their explanations.
At the entrance of the university, a first group of students, using a painting technique that plays on shadows and colors, wanted to highlight the "duality between the natural daylight and the nighttime shadows," created by the sun's rays reflecting on an installation of panels placed on the ground. Further on, it was a cardboard and wood elevator shaft created by four other students from the ALBA campuses in Dekwaneh and Koura, which served as a medium to express "the duality that exists between two opposing poles that confront each other: the external pole, representing the world around us, and the internal pole of each person."
"The reflection of the different lights projecting inside the elevator shaft represents the emotions that each being can feel and which differ from one being to another," they said. In one of the rooms on the first floor, it's a "dialogue between a dense chaotic state and a peaceful state" that a group of students from LAU wanted to highlight, creating a ceiling light dispelling different light tones, casting shadows on the walls that blend as one moves through the room.
Elsewhere, in a smoky room, lockers belonging to students of the university served as a starting point for another group that wanted to show the "duality between external life and the inner world that exists within each of us."
"Each locker represents a person hiding their own emotions and baggage, differing from one being to another," explained the students. "Once opened, these lockers emit very different sounds and lights, revealing each person's reaction to an external event and how it can affect the surrounding world."
Elsewhere, it's a "structured chaos" that students wanted to create using mirror-effect plexiglass fragments they placed erratically on the wall, creating a kind of irregular pattern.
"The light effect passing through these plexi pieces will create shadows on the wall, giving birth to a much more structured path," stated one of the students, highlighting the positive effect that light can produce.
A group made up of two ALBA students and three industry professionals allowed the latter "to consider light not just as a source of illumination, but much more as an artistic interpretation that can reveal emotions."
Further on, inspired by an entanglement of lines and strokes, drawn from drawings they executed the day before, a group of students created long intertwined tubes, reminiscent of "the paths each person takes in life like a kind of labyrinth." Inside these tubes, they introduced a ray of light, "to show that hope always exists, even in the hardest moments of confusion each being feels when facing the external pressures surrounding them."
Clarifying that this workshop is not a competition aimed at choosing the best executed project, Saroufim affirms that on the contrary, "the purpose of this experience is to introduce students from creative backgrounds as diverse as architecture, interior design, fashion, animation, and visual arts, to a more intentional use of light in design, pushing them to interdisciplinary collaboration, and above all making them understand that they can express all their emotions through light."
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
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