In a time when theaters and live entertainment venues around the world are struggling to attract, compensate, and retain qualified technicians to operate shows, what are some strategies that those venues are using to resolve those challenges?

Many of the theatres that I have spoken to in United States and around the world are noticing that the days when you can have one lighting technician, for example, operate the console for every performance seem to be a thing of the past.  Indeed, I have been working at more and more venues that are looking at automated communication system like OSC as a solution, even if temporary, to alleviate budget concerns, time concerns, human resources concerns (like paychecks, benefits, etc) and logistical concerns.  In this presentation, I will outline how I deal with those automated communications, the process with which to coordinate with other area designers and stage managers.  We will also discuss if this is an effective and long-term solution and the drawbacks that it can have including dropped packets, connection issues, need for at least one more experienced technician with networking expertise and advanced troubleshooting skills, cueing techniques and considerations and what happens when it goes wrong.

Light in performance and art is never just what appears at the end of a cable. This presentation, featuring case studies with a short live demo, introduces a DIY light-sound device (DLSD) whose evolving practice rethinks lighting design as a distributed, intra-active field rather than a unidirectional output from equipment.

Case studies showcase the DLSD’s multiple roles across contexts. Originally developed for an installation-performance where light is picked up as sound, it shifts choreography from light “on” bodies to bodies navigating and composing fields of sensing. Subsequent cases reveal its adaptability: co-performer in multichannel setups via intra-action with venue systems and space, public artwork reacting to passersby and ambient light, workshop tool fostering collective experimentation, and light-sound instrument integrated into a commissioned contemporary classical music score alongside percussion.

The discussion centers on this alternative methodology—an iterative process of making, testing, and intra-action where visual, sonic, and spatial decisions emerge from situated encounters among devices, performers, architectures, and publics. Lighting design becomes procedural, ecological, and open-ended, with functions left transformable rather than predefined. The DLSD’s indeterminacy—susceptible to interference, glitches, and changing environments—resonates with recursivity and contingency (after Yuk Hui), proposing hybrid, co-evolving human-machine collaboration over technical control or anthropocentric authorship.

Ultimately, the lighting designer’s responsibility evolves from mastering equipment to curating relations and contingencies: cultivating conditions where light—through intra-active plenitude—acts, reacts, re-acts, and exceeds pre-authored briefs, reproposing its agency across performance, installation, and hybrid media.

Lessons on trust and sustainable practice from a life in lighting design

In this keynote, Emma shares insights from more than three decades of working across theatre, opera, dance and international music touring.

Drawing on personal experience—from an early start in technical theatre, through years of high‑intensity international work, to burnout and recovery—Emma reflects on what actually makes careers and organisations sustainable over time. 

The keynote also addresses differences in work culture across countries and industries, highlighting the importance of separating the professional role from personal identity. Emma discusses having the courage to change direction when a path no longer feels right, can be crucial for long‑term growth.

This presentation explores Je te veux de la tendresse, an interdisciplinary research-creation project, by Le Collaboratif, that repositions light as the starting point of collaborative performance-making. Rather than functioning as a technical layer added at the end of a production process, light is approached as a dramaturgical and somatic engine capable of generating shared landscapes of presence.

The project asks: What happens when a creative process begins with luminous images and atmospheres? How does this shift affect collaboration between dancers, musicians, dramaturgs and designers? By initiating laboratories through light compositions instead of text or choreography, disciplinary hierarchies are temporarily suspended. Light becomes a relational force that shapes space, affects bodies and invites sound and movement into dialogue.

Methodologically, the research unfolds through three axes: the poetry of the image, the poetry of space and music, and the poetry of the landscape. Intertextual writing from painting, music and poetry provides tangible material for light compositions, which in turn structure embodied exchanges between collaborators. Phenomenological observation and explicitation interviews support an inquiry into how participants experience these encounters from within.

Findings suggest that beginning with light cultivates vulnerability, friction and reciprocity, allowing disciplines to co-emerge rather than accumulate. This approach proposes an alternative model of interdisciplinary practice—one where light is not a supporting medium, but a generative site of collision, resonance and transformation.

Over the years, artists have challenged the conventions of their own field and reacted to various global changes. Today, in an era of multiple crises, the perspectives of thinking, creating and designing differently are once again prominent and relevant. What might these aspects mean from the perspective of lighting design or light art? How are the designers approaching them?

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In lighting for stage, screen and architecture, light sources are often hidden – small, bright points of light from – for example – an unshaded lamp are seen as distracting, irritating and problematical. However, under specific circumstances, such sources are used to deliberate effect. Historically, Sebastiano Serlio (1545) described in detail the use of lamps behind windows and apertures to delight the eye on the Renaissance stage. 19th century burlesques and pantomimes used the new phenomenon of battery-powered electric light to illuminate the costumes and head-dresses of performers, while fairgrounds and public gardens were covered with glowing lamps. Today, in-view lights are seen on screen for game shows and light entertainment productions from Strictly Come Dancing to Eurovision, where they are colloquially known as ‘eye candy’, for their visual attraction. In architecture, Richard Kelly defined ‘the play of brilliants’ as one of three basic lighting principles, together with ambient luminescence and focal glow.

In-view sources are often a signifier of cultural status and value: from the brash kitsch of the mirror ball and glitter slash curtain, the fairground and the disco light, to the carefully calibrated tastefulness of controlled, shaded and semi-concealed light sources in an expensive hotel or restaurant. The attractiveness of point sources of light is inherent in human visual perception, but the cultural signification and values associated with such sources are contested and constantly shifting.

In the proposed presentation, I will introduce this topic with a view to initiating a discussion and feedback to support my ongoing research, with a view to publication in the future.

What is the strength of being able to understand and move between different parts of the ”light world” and what experiences and technical solutions can you take with you from broadcast into opera and vice versa? 

It once started with lighting design for independent theatre and dance groups followed by training at the Dramatic Institute and the love of light was born.
The meeting with the TV world meant that it was connected to another dimension – another eye with endless possibilities to create images where light is absolutely crucial.
With extensive experience in both theatre and TV lighting, Lotta has been involved in several recordings of theatre performances for SVT.
The challenge is to make the lighting look the same on screen as on stage and to find the usually small but crucial changes you need to make in the lighting to achieve this. 

https://womeninlighting.com/entertainment

This presentation explores, through personal experience in producing dance-drama across Asia, how lighting design can function as a form of “flowing space.” It examines how deep dialogues between lighting designers and choreographers collaboratively construct the aesthetic stage and strengthen the power of storytelling.

The presentation will focus on selected dance-drama works: “Shenzhen Story” by the Shenzhen Song & Dance Troupe (Wen Hua Award from the China Ministry of Culture & Design award from the China Stage Design Association), “Desperately Seeking Miss Blossom” , “ Yellow Earth, Yellow River” ( Hong Kong Dance Award 2008, 2001) “Yellow Earth” , “Suchness“ , Jade sister-in-law “ The Spirit is Willing” by the Hong Kong Dance Company. “Terracotta Warriors” – presented by Sight, Sound & Action Ltd, “Reminiscing the Moon” in the Esplanade Opening Festival by the Singapore Dance Theatre, “Hell Screen”, ”Chronicle of a floating city – Fragile”, “Song of the Good Earth” by the City Contemporary Dance Company, “ The Last Emperor” by the Hong Kong Ballet ,among others, 

Tommy works with the renowned choreographers, including  Wayne Eagling, Shu Qiao , Ying E.ding, Hu Jia Lu, Jiang Hua Xian , Fan Dong Hai , Zhang Jian Ming ,Chen Wei Ya, Mui Cheuk Yin , Willy Tsao , Helen Lai , Sunny Pang, Liu Feng Shueh, Lin Hwai Min, Boi Sakti, Shen Wei , mainly in Mainland China, Hong Kong , Taiwan & Singapore.

Participants will identify key factors that shape effective collaboration between lighting designers and choreographers during the creative process, and gain insight into how visual design and choreographic thinking interact to enrich theatrical expression.

The SCEALED project aims to understand and quantify the visual appearance of scenic objects under LED lighting. It explores how light spectra affect aesthetic perception, develops measurement tools, and applies an interdisciplinary methodology combining artists, engineers, and researchers. The goal is to create standards and practical tools for performing arts professionals.

This paper will introduce this four-year university project (granted by the French National Research Agency) involving four French universities and one private partner, Robert JULIAT. 

The project is divided into three work packages, each with specific objectives and methodologies.

• Work Package 1: Understanding focuses on gathering insights from lighting creators and audiences regarding perceptual changes due to different lighting spectra. Key experiments include interviews with lighting creators, observations in stage lighting school training sessions, and spectator evaluations with various stage setups. The expected outcomes are a database of descriptors for lighting effects, identification of aesthetic and perceptual effects linked to light sources, and foundations for measurement protocols.
• Work Package 2: Characterising aims to develop tools for measuring appearance changes under different lighting conditions. This involves psycho-visual assessments, objective measurements with calibrated cameras and spectrocolorimeters, and full-scale prototype scenes. The expected results are datasets on light spectra effects on surface appearances and protocols for reproducing and analysing lighting effects.
• Work Package 3: Modelling seeks to formalise insights into a practical tool for lighting professionals. This involves iterative modelling and validation of a multi-criteria reference framework, visualisation of appearance changes, and a prototype tool for simulating lighting scenarios.

The project bridges subjective perceptions and objective data through multi-scale analysis, interdisciplinary integration, and real-world relevance, aiming to deliver tools and standards for the performing arts community.

In my talk, “Beyond Illumination: Lighting as an independent artistic language,” I will explore how light can function as an independent artistic language—from stage to public space.

I will present insights from Copenhagen Light Festival (celebrating 10 years in 2027) as well as my international collaborations with Hotel Pro Forma.

The presentation will focus on how experimental approaches to light—through color, scale, and spatial composition—can open new forms of storytelling in both performing arts and urban environments, and how light can engage audiences by connecting sensory experience with human emotion.

We are finally seeing a transition away from the outdated CRI (Ra) in favor of more accurate measurement systems. Guided by the latest  CIE Position Statement on Colour Quality Metrics (CIE PS 002:2025), the industry is officially moving toward the CIE General Colour Fidelity Index (Rf) to better define color quality.

Website: www.nobelweeklights.se

The focus of this research has been to evaluate lighting design processes, from initial concept development through to the creation of a final design. Particular attention has been given to the technical tools involved in this process and the potential barriers to entry they create for underrepresented demographics. Following this evaluation, the research aimed to develop novel design systems intended to improve accessibility for a wider spectrum of users.

This presentation explores several case studies developed during the course of the research. These include investigations into how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can function as an access tool and, therefore, a tool for accessible lighting design. In particular, the research examines image-to-text and text-to-image generation as methods for supporting different stages of the lighting design process. The research also considers the role of accessibility aids and how established assistive approaches can inspire more inclusive design processes, for example, the use of visual aids to support users with different needs and abilities.

The outcome of this research is an interface capable of analysing images and identifying the visual elements that most effectively communicate key design information. The system then translates this information into a DMX Signal that can be transmitted to both physical and virtual lighting rigs. By enabling image-based design input and automated translation into lighting control data, the system aims to broaden participation in lighting design. The approach is informed by the social model of disability, seeking to reduce systemic barriers and enable a more diverse range of users.

Imagine being asked to teach about light and lighting design in Africa at a school you didn’t even know it existed and in a country, you have to look up on the map. For the most of my career, I’d never heard much about lighting and lighting design in Africa. Let alone about a school teaching it. Dakar, Senegal was never really on my radar. 

But one thing I have always done is teach and lecture about my profession. Education is vital for any field; it keeps a profession alive and professional. Especially now, when attracting young talent is becoming harder, at least that is what we are clearly seeing in the Netherlands.

So, when I was asked to share my knowledge in Dakar, I knew I had to do that. Even though I also knew it would be a hard, hot and exhausting time. But I have always loved starting something new, just as I did in the Netherlands, where I was one of the first to teach light and lighting design.

I want to share some of what I experienced in a country full of young people who are eager to learn and whose passion was a revelation.

While many Lighting Designers are lucky enough to have the budget and time to specify their rig for every show, many of us often work under rigs someone else designed – maybe because our show is being played in repertory, maybe because our shows are playing a theatre or music festival and we are not the headliner, or maybe because we are the “in house tech” charged with lighting tonight’s show, and there just isn’t time in the schedule to use anything but the “house rig”. 

This is particularly true for LDs at the start of their careers. I lit many a support act under the headliners rig, on tour and at festivals, and I’ve lit theatre shows in venues where getting the schedule dictated that I use what was rigged already, or that my allocated “lighting time” meant that I could either rig and focus my kit – and have no plotting time, or focus their kit and have plotting time, but not both! 

And I think by and large I did good work that helped the shows.

Does this make us less creative? Does it make the lighting design less “ours”?

I think not, and I want to address two ideas in this short presentation:

1. What makes a great “house rig” in 2026? What is the right balance between static fixtures and moving heads, or between back, top, side and front-light for example? And what should be “in the desk” in terms of pallets and presets for a visiting LD?
2. At a moment when lighting fixtures are becoming ever more flexible and time on stage is becoming ever more expensive, how do we as a community big up the idea that a well-designed “house rig” can – and maybe in many cases should – be the starting point for a creative lighting design?

Many theatre productions use video, yet its dramaturgical role often remains unclear. As a lighting designer, I have often felt that video is the most difficult medium in theatre: it easily becomes an aesthetic layer without a clear necessity.

This presentation explores an alternative approach where video is not an addition but an extension of scenographic space. The key element that binds the media together is light.

The talk presents three productions in which I designed lighting and video, and in two of them also the scenography, exploring how these elements can function as one integrated spatial system.

In Taide (2023), the stage space resembled a white temple with limited possibilities for projection. Instead of using video as imagery, the architecture of the stage was digitally extended in Blender: the columns of the set continued endlessly into a virtual corridor. A pulse of light travelled through the digital space and continued seamlessly into the physical stage lighting hidden behind the columns.

In Avaruuden nurkka (2025), a performance about NPC game characters, most environments existed only as video spaces. The lighting design mirrored the virtual worlds so precisely that the audience experienced the projected environments as extensions of the stage.

In Nämä juhlat jatkuvat vielä (2025), based on the writings of Eeva Kilpi, the scenography was conceived as a “museum of memories”. Video expanded the space into imagined locations such as care facilities or past landscapes, while identical lighting conditions connected the physical set and projected imagery into one perceptual environment.

Through these examples the presentation reflects on how light can function as a mediator between media and how immersive stage environments can emerge from the precise alignment of video, scenography and lighting.

The talk concludes with reflections on emerging AI tools in video creation and why artistic perception — the experience itself — remains central to the work of lighting and stage designers.

Lighting designer Jodi Rabinowitz explores what it means to build a creative career from the outside in. Less than 5 years ago they packed up their life, when their career was in an embryonic phase (literally hadn’t even graduated) with a dream and a goal. Now they look back on how they chaotically fumbled through immigration, freelancing financial instability, and the challenge of entering an industry built heavily on networks, access, and unwritten rules.

Working across fringe theatre, immersive performance, international touring, and large-scale live events, Jodi reflects on their naivety masked as a ‘can do attitude’ that had them walking into some pretty crazy jobs without a clue or a sense of what they were in for. Since then, they’ve honed the art of stretching money and making ambitious work with no resources, no clear roadmap, and very little safety net. 

From low-budget productions and chaotic touring conditions to multitasking across disciplines and developing highly efficient creative workflows to try and combat the chaos of the industry, this talk examines how resourcefulness, adaptability, and technical curiosity can become creative superpowers.

Part personal reflection and part survival guide, the session looks at how to stand out in highly competitive spaces without institutional backing, major financial support, or traditional pathways into the industry — and how being an outsider can ultimately become an advantage.

A candid conversation about creative survival, ambition, collaboration, and making yourself impossible to ignore.

Moderator: Chris Van Goethem