Light Forms in Urban Environment

Abstract

The paper proposes a method for generalizing and understanding the achievements of modern lighting design by means of classifying light forms and their main features are specified. The variety of types and complexity of light forms are due to avant-garde experiments in the art of the early and mid 20th century and is consistent with the successive change in artistic styles. Advances in computer technology and programming have made it possible to combine lighting elements, visual, colour and optical effects in one form. The new lighting techniques were developed for illuminating the architectural environment, various buildings, structures and forms in the spaces of world exhibitions. In this paper, the following light forms of the urban environment are investigated: projection mapping, light-graphic, light-painting and installation, sculptural, media surfaces and media facades, structural and vertical, energy-saving and virtual. The classification of light forms makes it possible to identify their structure and image, their correspondence to different eras in art, to predict the possibility of their transformation in the perspective of modern visual creativity.