ACADEMIA Letters

A Review about he Key Role of Lighting Design in

Museum Exhibition
CHARALAMPIA DIMITROPOULOU

Museums it is proposed that should be transformed into more participatory places, where
visitors create new ideas, express their own views and share knowledge with other visitors
(Simon, 2010). The question that arises in this paper is what is the role of lighting design on
the above principals?
Making a historical review of how the new media and in this case the lighting, influence
the perception of the space and the exhibition in the museum, this paper emphasizes the pos-
sibilities of the visitor for participation but also the creation of coherent links and different
uses by the creators of the exhibition. Macdonald & Basu in Exhibition Experiments, 2007,
argued that, first of all the design of the exhibitions, is a creative opportunity to use traditional
techniques to mediate modern media for the development of different presentation possibili-
ties (Macdonald, 2007). Those different presentations create new ideas and new challenges
for the participant too. The exhibitions are aimed at a wide audience and offer a variety of
participatory experiences including spatial in a structured environment.
The perception of space and exhibits in the museum is one of the main roles of lighting.
The lighting highlights the exhibits, helps the movement of the viewer and shapes what we
call atmosphere. Specifically for the way of absorbing spatial experience, Bohme in Atmo-
sphere as the Fundamental Concepts of new Aesthetics, 1993 (Bohme, 1993), studying the
way the ‘atmosphere’ appears in philosophy, the aesthetics of the object and space, concludes
that perception is mainly, the way the body is present in an environment, the primary object
of the perception of space writes, is the atmosphere (Bohme, 1993). An important means
of perceiving a particular atmosphere is the illumination of the environment or as he states
in a later article, light is the most important activator of the atmosphere (Bohme, Building
Atmosphere, 2013).

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: CHARALAMPIA DIMITROPOULOU, chara.dimitropoulou@gmail.com

Citation: Dimitropoulou, C. (2021). A Review about he Key Role of Lighting Design in Museum Exhibition.
Academia Letters, Article 3420. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3420.

1
 In order to understand the contribution of lighting to the perception of the museum atmo-
sphere, it was considered necessary to research the ways it is interpreted in museography /
museology bibliography. According to Sali, the lighting contributes to the direct relations of
the exhibits with the space (lighting of the exhibit and the space) and to the indirect relations
of the exhibits and the space with the visitor. In her book, Museology 2, Basic Principles
of the Museum Collections Exhibition, (Sali, 2006), she analyzes, among other things, the
contribution of lighting to the presentation of the exhibition.
Lighting as a tool of museographic design creates the visual impression of the exhibit
in relation to the space. At the same time, it contributes to the visual comfort of the visitor
and creates the general feeling that the space exudes. Lighting is one of the fundamental
parameters of museographic composition (Sali, 2006, p. 97). While, for its contribution to the
perception of the environment, she states that, lighting contributes decisively to the creation
of a suitable contextual environment and to the interpretive presentation of the collections
(ibid:111). She poses here in addition to the concept of perception that we saw above and
the concept of interpretation. It is gradually understood that every aspect of lighting in the
museum space is associated with interpretation. The visitor’s experience either as a physical
presence in relation to space and light or as a mental process in relation to visual perception
is ultimately the interpretation of the structured experience.
Roppola in Designing for the museum visitor experience, (Roppola, 2012), studies the
ways in which exhibition environments communicate with visitors. More specifically, she
researches and records the complexity of exhibitions as environments of experience, presen-
tation, learning - education and leisure. Museums and exhibits are creating a framework of
communication with the visitor, constructing the meaning of the existence of material culture
in relation to human (Roppola, 2012: 4). So the question that arises is what is the role of
lighting in this communication context?
A first use of light is to create a positive environment. As a shaping factor of the atmo-
sphere it helps to create an experience that is experienced physically. A second use of light
that Roppola identifies is that light alone can create a dynamic environment, an environment
that could correspond to the representation in the museum of cultures that have no material
heritage (ibid: 32). That conclusion is turning the light into an autonomous quality not nec-
essarily dependent on the presentation of a specific exhibit. Although her research is based
on the experience of specific exhibits from six different museums, we can draw additional
conclusions about the contribution of light to experience.
The participants of the research used the qualities of the lighting both to describe the
exhibit itself and its presentation environment. The light is very attractive, it intensifies the
attention, it catches the eye, (ibid: 128). While all the descriptions about visitors experience

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: CHARALAMPIA DIMITROPOULOU, chara.dimitropoulou@gmail.com

Citation: Dimitropoulou, C. (2021). A Review about he Key Role of Lighting Design in Museum Exhibition.
Academia Letters, Article 3420. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3420.

2
include references to the light, the color and the spatial arrangement. Concluding, Roppola
states, among other things, that the physical experience in the museum space should be taken
into account in the exhibition design as it has serious effects on the perception and recep-
tion of the whole presentation (ibid: 273). Since lighting as we have seen is considered as a
fundamental factor in the perception of the environment we can conclude that it has the cor-
responding weight in the creation of experience and therefore in the perception and reception
of the whole presentation.
Moreover we can conclude that light in a museum can contribute to the cognitive process
which is one of the traditional main museum roles. The main goal of the exhibition prac-
tices, according to Roppola, is still the presentation and interpretation of the objects to the
general public and through the interpretation, the attainment of knowledge. Dean also places
knowledge and learning in museums as the ultimate goal of any exhibition: the purpose of
exhibitions is to provide objects and information to promote learning (Dean, 1996)). The
presentation of the information behind the exposed object is the key factor in the existence of
the report itself. The information of the object should be accessible to the visitor through its
designed approach.
The explanation and therefore the knowledge as we saw is not based on a linear chronologi-
cal representation of the objects but on the complex relationships of the surrounding space and
its effect on the visitor. Design creates the relationships between visual perception and space
in different environments. The seemingly effortless and instinctive ways of moving in space
are the ones that activate the perceptual ability. Coordination with environmental properties
such as light, color and space enhances the processes of reflection and leads to perceptual
coordination (Roppola, 2012, p. 19). That is, the experience of meaning through coherent
experiential worlds. The design of the space and the exhibition, the objects, the lighting, the
texts contribute to the way the narratives are presented in the museum.
Multiple narratives are to a large extent a matter of design possibilities. Perceptual design
is a key part of the modern museum which is the creation of experience. In the dilemma,
experience or interpretation, as Serota puts it in Experience or Interpretation, the dilemma of
modern art museums, 2012, it seems that experience is gaining ground in terms of contributing
to the freedom of understanding an exhibition by the public (Serota, 2012). Understanding
and experience nevertheless, as Kaniari points out, lead to interpretation. Specifically, she
considers that experience involves interpretation: the direction of the meeting between the
viewer and the object is a form of interpretation (Kaniari, 2015). The position of Kaniari
comes to complete a contribution of light in the museum space. The design of the lighting as
part of the directed meeting contributes to the experience, the interpretation and finally to the
knowledge.

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: CHARALAMPIA DIMITROPOULOU, chara.dimitropoulou@gmail.com

Citation: Dimitropoulou, C. (2021). A Review about he Key Role of Lighting Design in Museum Exhibition.
Academia Letters, Article 3420. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3420.

3
References
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Bohme, G. (1993, January). Atmosphere as the Funfamental Concept of a new Aesthet-

ics.Ανάκτηση 6 2020, από www.researchgate.net: www.researchgate.net

Dean, D. (1996). Museum exhibition: Theory and practice. London: Routledge.

Macdonald, S. &. (2007). Exhibition Experiments. Oxford, Carlton: Blackwell.

Roppola, T. (2012). Designing for the Museum Visitor Experience. Oxon: Routledge.

Sali, T. (2006). Museology 2, Basic Principles of Exhibition of Museum Collections. Athens:

Metaihmio.

Simon, N. (2010). The Participatory Museum. Santa Cruz: Museum 2.0.

Academia Letters, August 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0

Corresponding Author: CHARALAMPIA DIMITROPOULOU, chara.dimitropoulou@gmail.com

Citation: Dimitropoulou, C. (2021). A Review about he Key Role of Lighting Design in Museum Exhibition.
Academia Letters, Article 3420. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3420.