The lighting industry continues to seek inventive ways to make light more efficient and ultimately more appealing to vastly improve the user experience…
Inspiration can come from many places, and for lighting, it only makes sense that those seeking new revelation would turn to the sky. Consider the work of American artist James Turrell, globally renowned for his interpretation of light, space, and playfulness in terms of perceived reality. He fancies the sky his studio, material, and canvas—creating a trompe l’oeil effect where he figuratively “drops the bass” on depth perception. As Calvin Tomkins of the New Yorker once said, “His work is not about light or a record of light; it is light—the physical presence of light made manifest in sensory form.”
Captivated by this concept, fixture designers found a way to reinterpret what Turrell was doing in the art world in a way that was commercially applicable. Dubbed “veiled ambient” lighting, it’s a brilliantly minimalist breakthrough that enables light channels to visually recede into the ceiling, virtually disappearing. The illumination is present, but the source is barely perceptible. Jon Steele, GM of Prudential Lighting, pioneer of this emerging design, commented on the inspiration behind the concept. “We wondered if there was a way to pump light through channels that felt like daylight on a cloudy day, with no shadows or sense of source. We accomplished this through incredibly uniform indirect lighting with a ‘forever’ look that appears seamlessly integrated into the architecture.”