Week #10 - Site Specific

For my site specific blog, I chose to do the Irvine Spectrum. This space was awash with extravagant lights everywhere, from the bright and festive stores to the shining fountains and even an elaborately lit ice skating rink, shown in the first photograph. For me, the rink best gave an overall feeling for the site because, like the huge ferris wheel and carousel which were also bedecked with lights to attract the wandering teenagers. However, it was the only one of the three which was not moving, and thus enabled me to snap a picture without the lights blurring in my camera's lens.

The lighting in the first shop I noticed was an abysmal failure. At first glance I mistook this perfumerie for a bookstore because of the lifeless, academic style of the lighting. Considering that the Perfume Gallery lacked any sort of window display, attractive pictures of bottles of perfume, or any other form of advertising beyond shelves and shelves of boxes that looked like nothing more books, I can see why there were no customers inside despite the otherwise bustling crowd of shoppers. The light was so bland and boring, especially compared with the garish finery surrounding the store, that I found my eyes automatically skipping over the front windows. I suspect that if the owners took the initiative to redesign the light to give the store a theme with a bit more mystery, passion, and romance, they would receive quite a bit more business.

Second I chose the Capital Seafood Bar for its unique and highly appropriate lighting. The soft glow of the red paper lanterns definitely added to the overall Asian theme of the restaurant, and also drew attention to the lovely intricate patterning of the architecture in the corners of the windows and door frames. The bright neon sign outside the front door was also red, matching the theme, and yet was tastefully highlighted with white shadowing, making the letters stand out clearly and legibly from a great distance. Finally, the interesting greenish-yellow luminescence around the alcoholic beverages behind the bar added an interesting exotic flavor to the unusual drinks they were serving. All in all, I thought the lighting for this restaurant was the most detailed and effective for the kind of message they were sending.