Towards a New Paradigm for Intuitive Theatrical Lighting Control

A simplified model of a lighting process applied in theatrical productions is one that involves two key players. The first is that of the lighting designer, to produce a set of intentions and plans for the scenes that define the show. The second, the lighting technician, has the job of translating these designs into practice using control equipment, luminaires, and other technical instruments. The lighting design often becomes a ‘working document’ subject to change and adaptation as the physical reality of the design becomes apparent, and the input of other stakeholders is considered. This process can be a valuable creative tool, and also a difficult technical hurdle to overcome, depending on a varied number of factors. A common frustration with this process is that either the complexity of the task, or difficulty in communication can make it difficult for the final creative vision to be effectively realised. Strains may also arise in the case of small, often touring, theatre companies where the lighting designer and technician may be the same person, and frequently one of the performers as well. Considering the design aspect, there can be challenges in ensuring efficacy of lighting plans between venues in touring productions, with 2D lighting sketches or even 3D computer simulations confined to the paper or screen. From a technical perspective, the role of the lighting technician in theatres and performance situations has included the operation of lighting control equipment during shows. The equipment has evolved over time but has, until recently, been grounded upon the basis of faders and the mixing desk. It is argued that this paradigm has failed to keep pace with the change in other interactive technologies. The on-going research described in this paper explores existing and upcoming technologies in the field, whilst also seeking to understand the roles and communication workflows of those involved in theatrical lighting to find the best areas to seek improvement, adopting principles of user-centred design. The intention of this research is to develop a new paradigm, and manifestation of it, using a control method for lighting or projection that allows a more intuitive form of operation in theatre productions, which will be scalable and flexible.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

David Schwarz

Stuart Cunningham

Rebecca Woodford Smith

Conference

Publication date: July 2019

Publication date (Print): July 2019

Pages: 360-367

Affiliations

[0001]Centre for Advanced Computational

Science

Manchester Metropolitan University

M15 6BH, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.68

SO-VID: 7595b02d-f2fe-432e-b940-60cc5523ef5c

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2019

Conference acronym: EVA 2019

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 8 - 11 July 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

History

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.68

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] P. D. Arnott 2002 Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre Routledge

[2] Art-Net 2017 Art-Net http://art-net.org.uk/wordpress/ retrieved 1 November 2017 )

[3] J. Bringle 2009 Lighting The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc

[4] Capture 2018 Capture http://www.capturesweden.com/ retrieved 16 February 2018 )

[5] A. R. ChangJ. Canny 2009 Illuminac: Simultaneous Naming and Configuration for Workspace Lighting Control Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces New York, NY, USA 2009 413 418 IUI ‘09. ACM

[6] A. D. CheokW. WeihuaX. Yang 2002 Interactive Theatre Experience in Embodied + Wearable Mixed Reality Space Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Washington, DC USA 2002 59-. ISMAR ’02. IEEE Computer Society

[7] C. Cuttle 2008 Lighting by Design Routledge

[8] Edison Company 1929 The History of Stage and Theatre Lighting Edison Company

[9] Enttec 2018 DMX USB PRO MK2 – Enttec UK. https://www.enttec.com/uk/products/controls/dmx-usb/dmx-usb-pro-mk2/ retrieved 13 February 2018 )

[10] ETC 2018 Ion https://www.etcconnect.com/Products/Consoles/Eos-Family/Ion/Documentation.aspx?LangType=1033 retrieved 12 February 2018 )

[11] E. G. Fletcher 1941 Electricity at the Savoy Studies in English literature 21 University of Texas Press 154 161

[12] K. FrancksenB. BatteyJ. Breslin 2009 Creative Process and Pedagogy with Interactive Dance, Music, and Image Congress on Research in Dance 41 S1 Cambridge University Press 307 311

[13] GrandMA 2018 grandMA3 is coming: MA LIGHTING https://www.grandma3.com/ retrieved 16 February 2018 )

[14] H. Hackett 2013 A Short History of English Renaissance Drama I.B.Tauris

[15] J. HakulinenM. TurunenT. Heimonen 2013 Spatial Control Framework for Interactive Lighting Proceedings of International Conference on Making Sense of Converging Media New York, NY, USA 2013 59 59 59 66 AcademicMindTrek ’13 ACM

[16] J. Holloway 2007 LIGHTING CONTROL HISTORY http://www.uky.edu/~jholl2/technology_pdfs/LightingControlHistory.pdf retrieved 21 April 2017 )

[17] S-W HsiaoS-K. ChenC-H Lee 2017 Methodology for stage lighting control based on music emotions Information sciences 412 413 14 35

[18] J. Huntington 2017 Show Networks and Control Systems Second Edition Formerly Control Systems for Live Entertainment. Zircon Designs Press

[19] G. C. Izenour 1996 Theater Technology Yale University Press

[20] A. S. Jackson 1993 The Standard Theatre of Victorian England Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

[21] T. F. Laduke 2018 DIGITAL THEATRICAL LIGHTING FIXTURE Patent https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/9c/fd/99/eb963dfda4ca22/US10165239.pdf

[22] J. MycroftT. StockmanJ. D. Reiss 2018 A Prototype Mixer to Improve Cross-Modal Attention During Audio Mixing Proceedings of the Audio Mostly 2018 on Sound in Immersion and Emotion 12 September 2018 3 ACM

[23] A. M. Nagler 1959 A Source Book in Theatrical History: Twenty-Five Centuries of Stage History in More than 300 Basic Documents and Other Primary Material Annotated Edition Dover Publications

[24] R. Pilbrow 1997 Stage Lighting Design: The Art, the Craft, the Life Nick Hern Books

[25] PLASA 2015 ANSI E1.17-2015 Architecture for Control Networks – ACN Architecture

[26] Preevue 2018 Laser Scanning https://preevue.co.uk/laser-scanning/ retrieved 16 February 2018 )

[27] QSR International 2019 Buy NVivo Now | NVivo https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/nvivo-products/nvivo-12-plus retrieved 28 February 2019 )

[28] D. Z. Saltz 2001 Live Media: Interactive Technology and Theatre Theatre Topics 11 2 The Johns Hopkins University Press 107 130

[29] S. L. Shelley 2013 A Practical Guide to Stage Lighting Third Edition CRC Press

[30] Strand 1957 Strand Archive 1957 http://www.theatrecrafts.com/archive/albumviewer.php?id=29&page=1&type=a retrieved 8 August 2018 )

[31] Vectorworks 2018 Vectorworks Designer Software Suite Vectorworks http://www.vectorworks.net/designer retrieved 16 February 2018 )

[32] D. B. WilmethT. L. Miller 1996 The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre Cambridge University Press

[33] wysiwyg 2018 wysiwyg Lighting Design – CAST Software http://cast-soft.com/wysiwyg-lighting-design/ retrieved 16 February 2018 )

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