TECHNIQUES 10: The Turrell

29 October 2010 | By Lauren Vanderkar

For the last technique in the series, Doug James from Mindseye focuses on the beauty and wonder that lighting can deliver

Throughout this series, we’ve looked at commonly used lighting techniques that suit a wide range of day-to-day applications. This final instalment is a little bit different.

“If there was a popularity contest among lighting designers, they’d probably pick one of the other techniques,” says Mindeye’s Doug James. “But if it were a beauty contest, this would be the winner.”

James is referring to ‘The Turrell’ – or rather, artist James Turrell’s pioneering technique that focuses on light, space and human perception. His art installations gave Turrell an almost iconic status, thanks to a combination of stark simplicity and high impact.

As James affirms: “It’s about reduction of detail to the point where you struggle to perceive what’s going on.” Perception is the driving force behind Turrell’s technique. His degree in perceptual psychology included the study of Ganzfeld – a phenomenon of visual perception where the eye, if looking at an entirely featureless field, has nothing to focus on, leaving the brain with no fixed idea of what it is seeing.

Turrell’s skyspace, developed from the start of his career, involves piercing a hole in the roof of a building with the sky behind acting as the light source. He uses this same idea in his installations, where he cuts a section from a wall behind which lies an artificial light source. On paper this doesn’t sound like much, but its precise execution brings the experience to life.

“The illumination needs to be completely homogenous across the space,” says James, “and the edges of the void need to be razor sharp. They can’t appear to have any thickness whatsoever.”

This all lends to the theory of Ganzfeld – meaning ‘total field’ in German – by giving the eye nothing to lock on to. “The communication between our eyes and our brain helps us to discern the world around us,” adds James. “If that visual information is not available, we are left with something that appears ambiguous.

“It leaves you with a feeling of otherworldliness – you’re questioning what’s happening in front of you.”

Impact

Its ethereal quality puts Turrell’s technique apart from the other nine. While it might not be a commonly used light source, it can still have practical applications. James advocates its use in a gallery space, reception area, or even restaurant and hotel environments to deliver “that moment in the architecture”.

“In an architectural context, this technique is useful predominantly to make people stop and take note,” says James. “It’s also a useful source of light, but if someone’s really in touch with their surroundings, they will pause and wonder what’s happening. It forms a dialogue between the architecture and the viewer.”

And the designer has control over the effect itself depending on the light source. Using natural sky gives the benefit of an ever-changing visual field, while an artificial source can illuminate in a variety of ways. “There’s a temptation to use colour, although the effect works just as well with white light,” adds James. The light source itself is typically fluorescent or LED to give an even spread of light – though LEDs are less ambient in character, making the effect slightly trickier to achieve.

Several examples of ‘The Turrell’ are larger installations that really make an impact – although the bigger the project, the harder it is to achieve the effect. There’s an extremely fine line between success and failure, because it all hangs on tricking the eye. The devil is, quite literally, in the detail.

“The feature needs to be completely clear of detail, which includes loose wires and visible equipment,” says James. “Any dribble of paint or blob of plaster in the space will give the game away.” The conviction behind James’ warnings comes from personal experience: his fi rst attempt 12 years ago was thwarted by one stray blob of plaster on the top surface.

“The details were right but back then the contractors weren’t able to work at that level of precision,” he adds. A recent example at the Whitegoods stand at 100% Design proves that precision can be achieved. James and his team cut a hole in the ceiling and used the bottom half of a septic tank to form the clean, detail-free ‘void’ behind. But perhaps the most famous example of this technique is Turrell’s own work in progress, Roden Crater. He bought the volcanic crater in Arizona 30 years ago, and is turning it into a monumental skyspace with observation platforms inside the crater.

“This guy’s a bit of a hero among lighting designers. He’s done some amazing stuff experientially,” confirms James. “You can step inside his works and really have an experience with light.”