How the lighting at concerts has changed!

Many of you may think,(and this includes me) lighting at a concert is just a fun attraction with no real design element attached to it. I often had weird ideas that it was a group of “special” people acting out the final scenes of return of the Jedi, how wrong I was! Mokry (2005) identifies that the main aim of a lighting director is to enhance the performance of the artist. He tactfully stated it as “light the money”. Moody and Dextor (2009) would expand on this by insinuating that it is important to know the needs and wants of the audience to be able to apply the right type of lighting. I recently attended SBTRKT’s night at Warehouse Project and was instantly thrown back to the days of running around playing laser quest with my mates. The lighting was so impressive I even found myself unable to stop taking a video of said light show.

As you can see (besides the random guy who is in love with whoever is  touching him)the lighting director has gone all out here and produced a truly blinding show, this is primarily because the artist is a DJ remixing songs by performers such as Radiohead, Modeselektor, Basement Jaxx and Mark Ronson. This means there is less interaction from SBTRKT, so according to Mokry (2005) the lighting director will be enhancing the performance in another way i.e. the laser show. Moody and Dextor (2009) would identify that the crowd going to such an event are more interested in the music and the vibe of the concert rather than the interaction from the performing artist on the stage, unlike in traditional “rock and roll” concert where this is a crucial component.

It is important to acknowledge that the lights used at Warehouse Project are controlled by intelligent lighting.  Miki (2004) defines intelligent lighting as a system where multiple lighting fixtures are connected to a network which allows the lighting director to control various complicated lighting patterns. Intelligent lighting has been present at concerts since the 1980’s and allows lights to move, change colour, scan, wash and are applicable to laser applications. This has dramatically improved the lighting sequences, making them far more complicated and mesmerising for the audience.

Overall, lighting at concerts has changed dramatically over the last few decades, turning into an intelligently complex pattern of lights . This could have coincided with the increase in music which Moody and Dextor (2009) would identify as less of a performance on stage In order to enhance the show for the audience.

Mokry, Robert. “Video Projection and Concert Lighting — Making the Marriage Work.” Rental & Staging Systems 1 Apr. 2005: 32

Moody, J. and Dexter, P. (2010) Concert Lighting: Techniques, Art and Business. 3rd ed. Oxford: Local Press.

Miki, M., Hiroyasu, T., & Imazato, K. (2004). Proposal for an intelligent lighting system, and verification of control method effectiveness. In Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems, 2004 IEEE Conference on (Vol. 1, pp. 520-525). IEEE.