Interviewer:　Noriko Higashi Issued on November 30, 2011 Noriko　：Before I started working at LPA, I taught English to children at elementary schools and at my home. I have always really liked working with children. Mr. Mende, how did you come about starting the children`s workshop? There was actually some very surprised staff at LPA!! Mr.Mende　：Children nowadays are exposed to an excessive intake of light and I want them to have the opportunity to experience just a small flicker of light and darkness while they are still young and innocent. I have hope for the next generation that their perception of light and shadow can be reset. But this higher principle aside, working with children is such a joy!! I think it is in my soul that I really like children….and small animals! I am basically a big kid and I want to recover the ability to behave and act freely. I am always saying “learn from natural light.” This is because natural light does not lie. Play and communicating with children is the same. They can make you aware of so many things. With unanticipated reactions, children are admirably hardy. Noriko　：There is one thing that I am curious about. Even a small, one-year old, baby has the strong motivation to make the workshop crafts by themselves, but adults are always lending a hand so they won`t fail. For example the candle might melt the plastic bottle or the shape is odd;…

Berlin is a multi-cultural city. Amongst the streets dating back to the Middle Ages, are very modern buildings that mysterious blend perfectly with the historical surroundings. In conjunction with this city survey we also attended the Festival of Lights, a lighting event in Berlin that keeps growing every year. Around the city light up, projections, and installations are arranged expanding the event and developing a lively night culture in the city. Looking over the city westward from the top of the TV tower. The axis of Unter den Linden extends toward the brightly lit Brandenburger Gate. Around the Potsdamer Platz are several modern buildings, but over all flashy displays of light or advertising does not stand out. One installation cover the street corner is colorful messages. Old and young, after-hour office workers and tourists, the city is alive with pedestrians enjoying the light entertainment and actually become part of the installations themselves. Festival viewers are proactive; men and women, old and young, all are enjoying the light entertainment. An older group of gentlemen shower themselves in color light and play in the color shadows and several older women carry around a camera and tripod snapping photos here and there. The festival is not just about technological quality, but creating a fun and entertaining culture.

This time each year I rely heavily on the Rain Gods not to forsake me. June 22nd, including summer and winter, I count this as the 7th time we have held the Candle Night Event and today’s weather forecast was rain. If it is just a sprinkle the show will go on, but this year the prediction was a downpour. After five years of great weather for the event, it looked like our time was up. Come to think of it, the Lighting Detectives seem to get rained on or out of a lot of previous events, with most of the blame coming my way and my incompatibility with the Rain Gods. It was time to fight for this event and keep our perfect score at Lighting Detectives 7: Rain Gods 0! After much chanting and praying to the Rain Gods, at 7 o`clock, just before the event was to start, miraculously nobody needed an umbrella! The pictures to the right are of the Jingu-mae Elementary School children and their parents as they gather near Meiji Shrine, the community service group, Green Bird, and the Tama Art University students who attended preparatory workshops. Everyone having a good time and without umbrellas! For more details of this years event there is a nice write-up on our website, but I want to specially recognize the Harajuku Community Planning Board and Omotesando Hills for their cooperation this year. With their help it seemed…

Date of Issue：3 February, 2020 ・Activity 1／Sydney Lighting Survey（2019.09.19 – 2019.09.21） ・Activity 2／Tokyo Survey 　Tsukuda・Tsukishima（2019.11.18） Lighting Detectives Newsletter vol.103  Download PDF Sydney Lighting Survey: How Sydney CBD glows at night 2019.09.19 – 2019.09.21　Momoko Muraoka + Sunyoung Hwang Sydney, a capital city of New South Wales is famous for its beautiful beaches and iconic Opera House. It makes it to the most populous city of Australia with more than 5.2million population. The climate of Sydney is subtropical with no extreme seasonal differences. Highly saturated clear blue sky, lush greeneries, beautiful waterscape, and iconic Opera House – Sydney is the city that has it all. It is quite a lovely place to be and usually makes it to the top rankings for the most liveable cities in the world. This time, Lighting Detectives flew to Sydney to find out how it lights up at night as a famous tourist destination. The survey focuses on the Sydney CBD (Central Business District) area. When looked down from the Sydney Observatory, the city did not have much of the façade lighting. Many of the buildings were glowing with their interior lights. There were not much of RGB lights nor media facade light except few areas of Darling Harbour and Pitt Street, the shopping district. The shot taken from North Sydney to have an overall view of Sydney CBD with iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge shows this more clearly. Sydney seemed rather classic with a…

Colombo ⇒ Kandy ⇒ Galle 2018/10/23-28 Momoko Muraoka + Yuri Araki We surveyed the relationship between lighting and people’s lives in the Buddhist nation of Sri Lanka, traveling through three distinct cities: Colombo, which has seen remarkable development in recent years; and Kandy and Galle, both designated as World Heritage Sites. ↑↑The nightscape of Kandy, a World Heritage Site. The illuminated Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic can be seen on the right, across Kandy Lake ↓With few buildings featuring facade light-up or sign lighting, the nightscape is primarily formed by light spilling out from shop interiors ■What Creates the Night Streetscape of Sri Lanka Kandy is an ancient capital and a World Heritage Site in central Sri Lanka. In the heart of the city, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic—a sacred site for Buddhists—stands by the lake. Directly across from it is the colonial-style Queen’s Hotel, which evokes the British colonial era. During the day, this diverse streetscape allows you to feel the history of Sri Lanka. However, the streetscape takes on a different appearance in the evening. Very few buildings have facade lighting, and even the Queen’s Hotel, a city symbol, is plunged into darkness. Since shop signs lack extravagant electrical decorations, the nightscape is primarily formed by light spilling out from the interiors. Compared to the streetscapes of modern cities, the scene is like a figure-ground reversal. Even the city’s largest road has no streetlights for…