The Feel of Light: The Atmospheric Potential of Coloured Illuminations

This PhD study is motivated by the increasing implementation of chromatic lighting in healthcare environments. Adding to current research on visual and psychophysiological effects of light, this study investigates how the body feels in different colours of illumination. As a means to this, social scientific research is carried out in three case-studies in a showroom-, field- and lab environment from a body-sensory approach, comprehending light as a generator of atmosphere and the human body as multisensory and felt. Analyses of ethnographic data collected in each case-study indicate how participants not only felt differently but also moved in different manners in attunement to the surrounding hue of illumination. Moreover, a linking of findings across case-studies indicates how different colours of illumination generally attuned particular modes of bodily presences in space – from predominant modes of being-there physically in cool white and bluish hues, and predominant modes of being-near in warm amber and reddish hues. As such, the PhD study points to a general atmospheric potential of coloured illuminations to attune the multisensory and felt body in architectural spaces.