Invited Speakers

IT01

Bruce Ramus, AU
THE QUALITY OF LIGHT IN OUR LIFE – REFLECTING OUR RHYTHMS

Ramus' primary design intent is to bring harmony and movement to architecture, public art, staging and outdoor spaces through light and moving imagery. 
At Ramus we illuminate entire buildings, public spaces, staging environments and commercial precincts. 
Founded and led by creative director Bruce Ramus, the company has a collective knowledge of the art of illumination that has been earned in collaboration with world leading performing artists, architects and visual artists.
Bruce will present Ramus’ work and discuss the way light shapes our experience, reflects our rhythms, and connects us all.

Vision

To design and produce visually integrated human precincts through the use of light, sculpture, digital media and interactive technology.
Bruce and Ramus Illumination present a new unimposing urban art form that marries light and digital media that responds to communities and engages them in playful forms of co-creative connection.

Experience

Canadian born, Bruce Ramus began his career in the live music industry when he was nineteen and has been working as a light artist ever since. He has designed and directed countless international live shows and events including rock bands; U2, R.E.M., David Bowie, Bryan Adams, David Byrne, Guy Sebastian, James Brown and television shows including; the Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, MTV Awards, ARIA awards and Super Bowl Halftime Shows.
In 2006 Bruce moved to Melbourne and formed Ramus Illumination, a design studio with a focus on interactive lighting installations, architectural facades, precinct activation and lighting and video design. Ramus Illumination’s most recent projects include The Digital Wall in Sydneys’ newest retail centre, the Helix Tree - an interactive sculptural public art piece commissioned for Federation Squares Light In Winter that responded directly to the singing voices of the public; Luminous at Darling Quarter - the world’s largest permanent interactive lighting installation; Wintergarden - an LED installation in Brisbanes Queen St mall that displays 180 hours of bespoke video content embedded in a sculptural facade and spans an entire city block; Large-scale projections on the Sydney Opera House as part of the early Vivid Festival.
Ramus Illumination’s work is about connection - creating works that are innovative, interactive and sustainable. They are designed to engage communities in shaping their own environment. Our collaborative process results in a unique approach to urban space that aligns public art, community engagement and commercial vitality.

IT02

Anya Hurlbert, GB
TUNING LIGHT TO SEE AND FEEL BETTER: THE HUMAN VISUAL AND NON-VISUAL RESPONSES TO SPECTRAL VARIATIONS IN LIGHT 

The advent of tuneable, multi-channel LED light source technology enables vision scientists to probe better the human response to light, yielding greater understanding of how human physiology has adapted to natural environmental illuminations. At the same time, novel lighting technology allows designers to tune lighting to shape human behaviour in different environments. I will discuss interactions between the visual and non-visual systems in the human response to light, in terms of both visual performance, image perceptibility, and affective responses. I will consider the effects of dynamic changes in the spectral content of light on object colour perception, in the context of the basic phenomenon of human colour constancy, and in the context of applications, specifically lighting for museum paintings and for optimising human performance.

(For an extended abstract click on the link above.)

Anya Hurlbert is Professor of Visual Neuroscience and Director of the Centre for Translational Systems Neuroscience at Newcastle University. She trained as a physicist (BA 1980, Physics, Princeton University), physiologist (MA 1982, Cambridge University), neuroscientist (PhD 1989, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT), and physician (MD 1990, Harvard Medical School). Her main research interest is in understanding the human brain, through understanding the human visual system. She focusses on colour vision and its role in everyday visual and cognitive tasks, in normal development and ageing as well as in developmental disorders such as autism. She has particular research interests also in applied areas such as digital imaging and novel lighting technologies. One of her current research projects (HI-LED), funded by the EU FP7 programme, aims to understand how novel lighting technology may be used to optimise human health and performance. In 2004, she co-founded the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle, one of the UK’s foremost academic units focussed on neurosciences, uniting clinicians and basic scientists, and was Institute Director until 2014. Professor Hurlbert is active in the public understanding of science, and has devised and co-curated several science-based art exhibitions, most recently an interactive installation (a film, lighting demonstration and mass public experiment) at the National Gallery, London, for its 2014 summer exhibition. She lectures widely on colour perception and art, and contributes to media programmes on visual perception. She is past Chairman of the Colour Group (GB) and currently Scientist Trustee of the National Gallery.

IT03

Bryan King, NZ
AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND ROAD LIGHTING – APPLYING ADVANCED ENERGY PERFORMANCE METRICS

This paper will explore and analyse the design energy performance achieved by a selection of 83 actual lighting road schemes recently designed and installed across Australia and New Zealand covering both Category V (Main Roads) and Category P (Residential Roads).
The basis of this research was a study undertaken for the Australia and New Zealand Government Equipment Energy Efficiency (E3) program, applying recent developments from the European Standard prEN13021-5 Energy Performance Indicators and the Netherlands Energy Efficiency Classification system.
The objective of the research was to evaluate and benchmark the actual energy performance levels prevailing in AU and NZ and to evaluate whether the metrics and calculation methodologies of the Design Energy Rating system could deliver effective and practical energy performance quantification in a AU and NZ standards context. Such an approach could in future form part of the normative criteria for AS/NZS1158 lighting design application for straight sections of roadway.  
The metrics used are Power Density Indicator (PDI) for static application and Annual Energy Consumption Indicator (AECI) for dynamic use. These new metrics will allow the quantification of energy savings from both simple schemes and for sophisticated CMS smart control systems that use scheduled adaptive lighting and/or real-time presence detector operation to reduce energy waste and to minimise light pollution.
The research results showed a remarkably wide spread of energy outcomes within similar applications and demonstrated that much improvement in energy performance outcomes is possible with appropriate luminaire selection and more astute lighting design execution.

Bryan King is an experienced lighting practitioner and authority on road lighting practices worldwide. Bryan has a 30-year history of leadership and governance positions in lighting manufacturing and consultancy businesses for the professional and local government lighting sectors. He is a member of the AS/NZS1158 Road Lighting committee, convener of the AS/NZS1158 Energy Performance Working Group, a member of AS/NZS EL-041 Lamps and Luminaires committee and Head of Delegation of the International Electrotechnical Commission NZ National Committee TC34-Lamps and Luminaires. Bryan was the Founding Chairman of Lighting Council NZ and is currently the Executive Director. As a principal of SLP, Bryan has undertaken road lighting consulting assignments for the New Zealand Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority, the South Australian Department of State Development, NSW and QLD councils, NZ councils and the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia. He has also undertaken LED lighting consultancy for the IFC-World Bank.