Workshop report: Lighting Guerrilla

Lighting Guerrilla workshop, mentored by the Spanish lighting designer Ignacio Valero, was held from September 30th to October 2nd, 2015 at the Main Hall of Technical faculties of Belgrade building, as a part of the Belgrade of Light program, during International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015. It was organised by Belgrade Lighting Detectives in collaboration with Masterdia programme of the Polytechnic University of Madrid and Master Studies in Interior Architecture of the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade.

From lighting up human faces to lighting up architecture, that is the methodology that has followed three-day Lighting Guerrilla workshop with an amazing number of 84 students and 84 mobile phone light sources.

Gift of Light 1 – In the course of the day one, students were tasked to research upon the best settings with four light sources in the indoor space which could make human face seem beautiful, intriguing, peculiar, mystic. Once the groups agreed upon their lighting tactics, they went out on the streets to light human faces outdoor, understanding behaviour of the light in the new environment.

Gift of Light 2 – Day two of the workshop was arranged in decoding the architectural space of the Main Hall in order to develop the most adequate lighting strategy while working with hues and colours. Students’ concepts of genius loci went from static to dynamic, from the Greek temples of knowledge and lighting up specific segments of the columns, to students mingling inside the hallways depicting vividness of the building.

Gift of Light 3 – The final day of the workshop considered dividing students in three main groups/categories: Architecture, Spirit of the Place and Freestyle. Each group worked on the specific place of the Main Hall, intuitively coming across the movement of the light, as their in common concept. Performances of each group took place successively, with the final result in achieving ubiquitous lighting sensations layering the Main Hall of Technical faculties of Belgrade building, which have once again provided entirely different ambiance of the very same place.

Lighting Guerrilla workshop, the Main Hall of Technical faculties of Belgrade building | Photo © Vojislav Gelevski