Change the mood...lights!

I am busy reading some articles for my SPP essay in Decembre and if my short-term memory serves me well, I was reading something that Victor Papanek wrote on how designers should be aware of the impact their products have on the moods of (unwitting) consumers. Going beyond the modern leitmotiv of global warming and ecology, what I find most encouraging in this sort of outlook is the willingness to draw design closer to ethics and responsibility, and the idea that is slowly gathering momentum that though our reality might be fragmented, the pieces are linked, however loosely.


Why I raised this issue and gave it blog space is because we have been mentioning mood in our Narratives seminar on Friday, and however far-fetched my connection seems, the mood a certain image/soundtrack, or all of these combined create are interesting to look at. I was thinking of taking a brief look at some photos I`ve modified and analyse the mood. The thread that links all of them is a figure of light or colour emerging from total or partial darkness. It`s remarkable how when we think of mood, black or dark colours turn out to be the heavy weight champions. Still, can one make (dark) moods more suple and subtle?

Picture no. 1:

People who have seen this one have called it many names: starchild like (huh?), slightly Gigeresque (slightly, though the colour pallete is off), diva (oh, my...), etc. But the point is, there is nothing tormenting about the meeting of light and darkness here in all those similes (except maybe for the second one...). If anything, it`s not a figure crawling out of darkness as much as it is darkness trying to make its way into the picture, clinging to the margins of the pool of light. I suppose we can come up with some metaphores or themes that are commonly associated with light and darkness for these pictures. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the victory of light over darkness, the dream of the Enlightenment and the sour grapes of postmodernity (we all know you wanted to be in charge of the great mission Foucault et Co., you just couldn`t come up with one at the time...quel dommage!)

Picture no. 2:

Well, quite a different story now, isn`t it? In my humble opinion, the lighting sort of ressembles that of some video games cut-scenes (slightly hazy. with a diffuse glow). Theme: light and dark bickering...I mean...the monumental, epochal battle of shadow and light, good and evil (although there is no such thing as absolute evil or good....and no, I`m not an advocate of relativism, it`s just common sense...don`t blame your mischiefs on the devil, it`s probably your fault, you sinner, you!

Picture no. 3:

Oh...I think I just realised what this picture feels like. Up until now, I just couldn`t find the right word: Saint-Just. Ah yes, and the memories and tingling sensations that the lighting in this picture brings to mind is of moments of serene happiness, sunny days of the First Republic, with birds chirping graciously and heads of royalty and fellow revolutionaries bouncing vivaciously off the guillotine. Good ol` days! But that`s just me, a nostalgic!

Ok, enough of that. Until the next episode of `whaaaat`s she sayin`?` stay tuned for the commercials. Back to book worm mode...