Pathway Connectivity Partners with Design College to Help Advance Student's Lighting Design Skills

	"Spot the Change." Photo: Tobias Holden

Pathway Connectivity and Parsons The New School for Design -- one of the most prestigious art and design universities in the world -- established a partnership to advance students' appreciation for the role lighting can play in design. Pathway donated the use of a Cognito lighting console and provided technical support to help the students build an interactive lighting installation. The installation will be featured at lighting, architectural, and technology events across the globe.

"The Cognito lighting console is a great tool for the project," said Mike Hawkins, a Parsons student who collaborated on the project. "It allows us to program light shows that flash on cue between two color temperatures. This helps demonstrate how our perception of color changes under different color temperatures of white light. We received extremely valuable assistance from the team at Pathway during the set up, and that support was critical to our success."

The project goal was to allow viewers the opportunity to better understand the creative and technical potential of how lighting and lighting design can shape perception and experience. The students created the installation "Spot the Change" to demonstrate human variable perception of object color under white light.

The installation features interactive arcade buttons visitors can press to initiate light changes specifically calibrated to the colors of the immersive environment. The Cognito console allowed the students to program MIDI input, triggered by a visitor's actions, to initiate sequences where -- for example -- pink and red spots appear to be the same color in one lighting condition but look different under another.

"We were very impressed with what the students at Parsons were able to achieve with our lighting control technology," said Dave Higgins, VP and Value Stream leader for Pathway Connectivity. "They delved deep into the features of the console, including the console's remote triggering capabilities, to create a highly innovative installation. New lighting technologies will have a profound impact on design, and Pathway is honored to help these students explore those developments."

Cognito is a feature-rich lighting controller that utilizes "natural language control" to simplify the complex task of integrating incandescent dimmers, moving lights, and color-changing LED fixtures within a single show, including the ability to coordinate not only color changes but also color temperature between differing sources.

"Spot the Change" was unveiled at 2014 Light + Building conference in Germany March 30 - April 4.

Pathway Connectivity is a division of Acuity Brands Lighting, Inc.