Concept
Who does the MSLD want to reach out to?
MSLD is a lighting design school for professional designers, members of the lighting industry, students and all those interested in light and lighting design.
MSLD’s dynamic “Light of foot” philosophy means that it is at home wherever it „pitches its tent“. It can give impulse and move on.
MSLD can support existing schools of lighting design and university structures or help initiate new programs and schools of lighting design where required.
MSLD will promote existing lighting design programs of excellence and lighting design certification programs.
MSLD is fast and dynamic and can consult, mediate or teach at short notice. The teaching team will be set up to suit the task at hand and the modules can be ordered to fit the needs.
MSLD can act as a mediator between communities, planners, manufacturers and politicians. It can encourage transfer of knowledge and foster growth and development.
MSLD will visit schools of architecture, landscaping, city planning, design and media to foster alliances and to increase the awareness of incorporating good lighting design in their teaching programs.
MSLD can also be appointed to conceive and initiate Exhibitions and conferences about light and lighting design.
MSLD offers courses, workshops, seminars, lectures on light and lighting and can provide public and private institutions with coaching, mediation and consultancy services.
For more Information see Contact.
Mission Statement
“Light is a fundamental element in our lives, a scientific and biological truth, which since the dawn of mankind has had profound spiritual and mystical meaning. Light transcends all linguistic and cultural barriers. It is a primal phenomenon; it is understood directly and needs no translation into language. It is at the same time both micro and macro. It appeals to our instinct, our intellect and our souls in a most direct and intimate way. Light and the use of light sources play an important role in the creation of architecture and our environment. Light and its influence on our architecture and our way of life will continue to grow in importance in the years to come, as our resources dwindle. The philosophy and beauty of light and its sensitive economic usage, the right to have darkness, the need to avoid light pollution, the timeless dialogue between inside and outside, volume or void, wall and window are all essential themes in my artistic and architectural work. This humanistic interdisciplinary approach provides the basis for my teaching concept for which I have developed a series of specific and yet universal intercultural educational modules such as “Cube”, “Moodrooms”, “Microlightmachine” and “Eating Light”.
„The bee visiting the flowers“
I wrote the above text back in 2001 as a founding member of the teaching team and co-initiator of the international master’s program in “Architectural Lighting Design” at Wismar University in northern Germany.
It was the opening statement to an article published that year in the Professional Lighting Design magazine and it helped inform the professional lighting community of our intentions to develop a special kind of teaching program for this exciting profession. It is today as actual as it was over ten years ago; in the meantime the Master’s program set up at the University of Wismar has grown to be one of the most successful Lighting design programs in the world and I am very proud to have been a part of that success.
Today at lighting design conferences, I am delighted to meet ex-students of mine from those early days in Wismar who are now themselves teaching such as Pradeep Bhagat and Dr. Amardeep Dugar in India, Joice San in Jakarta, Dr. Thanh Tran in Vietnam and Rodrigo Muro at the KTH in Sweden. Some to my joy have even integrated my “Cube” teaching module into their teaching program. Others have gone on to join respected lighting design firms or have found a position in the lighting industry or started up their own design practices. This is personally very rewarding as one can see that in a relatively short period, little more than a decade, from the initial seeds planted in Wismar lighting designers have grown and spread throughout the world and represent the diversity of our teaching principles. This was our hope and our intention, to help the young profession of lighting design establish itself on a global stage and to do this there was and there still is no better instrument than that of education.
However, our work is not complete with Wismar, all schools and universities need to change and adapt to an ever-changing market situation and the demographic shifts that cities throughout the world are now experiencing. More importantly to meet the increasing demand for lighting designers we need to establish more schools and institutes of learning that can help spread the word about the importance of excellent lighting design at a greater pace in more parts of the world. The lighting design community needs to take advantage of the increasing awareness that is growing worldwide among societies regarding the importance of reducing energy costs and the intelligent usage of diminishing resources. This is an area where lighting designers can and must make a big impact. Additionally the speed of the technological development, for example LED’s and computer management systems, means that teaching institutes have to be quicker to keep up.
Increasingly we will have to adapt public spaces, as they become democratic 24/7 living rooms for the citizens of the city. Informing and preparing the young and old for these changes on a global scale requires new concepts. This is where the mobile school of lighting design can play a role. MSLD’s mission statement is “the bee visiting the flowers” what do I mean by that, well just that! The school is the bee visiting the flowers, collecting knowledge and passing it on to others, so that they can blossom and flourish. We want to share knowledge, enthusiasm, skills and know how, we want to include and enrich. Today a school can visit the students, visit the communities, and visit the people to spread the word. It can be a part of a global and local enlightenment campaign. This can start small but can develop through networking. It is not enough to use the medial tools available such as skype, webinars or moocs, the MSLD wants to be personal, to interact on a human level.
I am delighted that the MSLD has a large network of highly respected teachers and practitioners that can be called upon to support us at venues throughout the world. The UNESCO “year of light” will bring us together. It is a good time to launch this new type of school, a school that can be truly sustainable.
Ruairí O’Brien
Director of MSLD