Aylin Aydin

Our built environment reflects the diverse identities and the collective history of our nation by preserving the cultures of the populace. As a lighting designer, I am exploring through my thesis the threshold of lighting that helps to connect culture, evoke a sense of remembrance, and tell and retell history through the use light with public statues and monuments. My study investigates the quality of light that connotes or reinforces instilled notions and meanings of built memorials. Light conveys messages to visitors in public places, and we therefore can use it to educate, celebrate, or commemorate specific historical events or figures. To do so, my study assesses the best adaptation of lighting design practices with respect to historical and cultural meaning and applied to physical monuments. The experiment asked whether changes to lighting of built memorials would affect perceptions of history, and how lighting might enhance a sense of commitment to collective memory. The results of the experiment can be used as lighting design recommendations for exterior lighting to reinforce, or even reconfigure, the value of artifacts.