Choosing to live in a space which is impregnated with harmony is one of the trump card for the still rare ones who have an inner taste for high quality life. Our home is the closest extension of our being, and as such it should match our most intimate traits, it has to work as a second skin.

Let’s talk seriously: there is no such risky workd as “design” – as most of the world population mistakens the term – in building up one’s own environment, for the very reason that everyone has his personal functional and aesthetic comfort, I mean bio-psychological safeness. Instead, there is (or better, should be) one common serious design dictat in the making of this second skin,  which is – sad to say – not yet totally digested by most of the designers in general. Light.

Light is the crucial factor of perception, therefore one of the very first thoughts everyone should properly take when considering to build whatever environment including a biological presence. Light is far from being a decoration gadget or something to not trick over the staircase. To call it by name, Light is an electromagnetic frequency, with very complex behavioural rules and interactions: it must be handled with a proper professional knowledge.

Daylight and nightlight, to start with, are completely different scenarios, for they have different perception outcomes and therefore different biochemical triggerings in our body system, which result in different functional responses, whose signal to our mind briefly arrives as good mood or bad mood. Yes, despite our belief to be evoluted beings, we still  fundamentally work as primordial instinctive animals. If something promotes our survival well we feel unreasonably happy, while on the contrary if something threatens our life we feel misteriously and unbearably bad.

Think of a clear sunny day: unless you are totally disconnected with your biology – which is unlikely – you perceive a sort of “ahhh…” mood. On a rainy day, unless you are a super-evoluted being who has overcome his instict, you feel bothered, uncomfortable, “not in place”. This is the magical double-blade light effect.

Artificial light is everywhere, everytime, in multiple forms that we do not control yet. One thing for sure is that we have been moulded and still function as solar batteries with a precise behavioural scheme.

Adaptation, Nature docet, takes such a long time to produce favourable results.  Reflecting on this is of great relevance.

Be watchful on electromanetic interferences 😉

PATRIZIA DE MASI
PHOTONIKA project leader