“LIGHT ROTUNDA”

Vestfold University College, 2010

(KORO Public art Norway)

“Light Rotunda” is a cylindrical enclosure with translucent glass walls that

have a milky-white tint; there is a doorway and inside is a bench.  Lamps

with very bright full-spectrum light are located in the ceiling. This light is

known to be healthy during the dark winter months. The building itself

opens up to the daylight, and the light rotunda emphasizes this idea, and

is, with the focused energy of its therapy light, a continuation and

intensification of the daylight that weakens and declines during fall and

winter. Light therapy has been shown to be energizing for everyone in

Scandinavia's latitudes; students are in one of the two groups most

affected by the general light loss.

The light rotunda is a quiet place for conversation between two or more,

or a place to sit and read, or just to sit. In any case, the light therapy

works as long as one stays in for 20 minutes.

For people outside the rotunda the milky-white glass embraces the

movement of those inside.  Their shadows can be seen from the outside.

Thus the installation gives an experience from both sides: when inside,

the world outside gets shut out by the bright light, while on the outside

one will see the people inside moving, as in a shadow play, as they sit

down, get up, or move around