Week #4 Lack of Light

Why, you may ask, have I selected a picture of a power strip? Because recently, this was one of the only sources of electricity in my apartment after most of our plugs stopped working, and I have never been more happy to see a little orange light indicating "on" in all of my life. At first, things were fine without most of our lights or outlets working. We live in a house with many windows, and barely use lights during the day anyways. I stayed home, and used the one working power strip to plug in my computer and write my paper. 

However, things got ugly around 5:00. I was supposed to go somewhere at 7, and was not ready. Once I realized my room was getting darker and darker as the sun began to set I realized the whole "no lights" thing was going to be an issue. I took a shower in relative darkness, and had to leave my door open for any streams of light to come through. By the time my shower was done, the sun had set, and the house was pretty dark. I went around the house and collected as many lights as I could, trying to plug them into the power strip so I could see myself as I did my makeup. However, despite the use of around 4 lamps, it was still nearly impossible to put makeup on. Thats when it hit me. During the day, when natural light is pouring through our windows, I had been putting on makeup in my room. However, at night, I had unconsciously been doing it in the bathroom because the lighting there (overhead) was much more suited to providing full coverage light than the lamps (all of which had lampshades) which only cast light up and down, barely lighting my face. I thought it was incredible that something that seemed as simple as light had been altering all of my routines for months, and I had just then, in the absence of proper electricity, noticed it. This caused me to ponder all of the other times light plays a role in life. When I wake up in the morning, wether or not I go for a run, if I feel safe walking, wear heavier/lighter makeup or lighter/darker colors, how awake I feel, when I go to sleep. Light is everywhere, effecting what we do always, we just don't notice it unless it is thrown off. 

This observation, when applied to theater, shows just how important lighting design is in creating an "authentic" feel, or setting a mood.