Several years ago, Professor Sylvia Pont worked on the light design for an exhibition on Delft-based artist Jan Schoonhoven, who specialised in wall reliefs. “I gave a lecture at Museum Prinsenhof once on light and perception and all the factors that play a role in what and how you see.” Following that lecture, Pont was invited to make a design for the Schoonhoven exhibition. (Delft, October 2015–February 2016) “If you Google his work, the way it’s presented in different exhibitions, you often can’t even see that it’s the same piece. The museum wanted to show that phenomenon.” Chris van Hoogdalem, whose Master’s project was supervised by Pont, did a number of preliminary studies using copies of his work. “We tried all sorts of things in collaboration with the Beers-nielsen bureau. We eventually designed a light set-up for the exhibition. The works of art were lighted interactively, changing before your very eyes from cones to vertical lines to all sorts of shapes. That exhibition was widely acclaimed. People were amazed by it and couldn’t believe it was real.

The graduation project by Chris was well-worked out, realized in a public setting and well received by the media. Moreover, it also resulted in publications such as a book and a conference poster. The project was a multidisciplinary collaboration in which people (perception & user experience), technology (advanced dynamic LED lighting) and business (public exhibition) were connected, and from a scientific perspective optics, psychology, design and humanities.