An Experimental Approach to the Didactics of Color in Lighting Design: a Work in Progress

In the academy, the inclusion of new technologies represents a constant challenge, at the same time it means the establishment of a bridge between the new generations of students and the traditional way of teaching and learning. Technology has not only expanded and democratized access to knowledge, it has also made a great contribution to improving the educational experience inside and outside the classroom. In the teaching and learning of color and light, the theory by itself is usually not enough to correctly account for the knowledge associated with these phenomena, and the simulation and recreation of different experiments with the help of instruments is of great importance for the understanding of the complexity that they entail. This paper proposes the creation of a multi-sensory classroom, as an innovative training instance is proposed with a method from observation to experimentation and individual analysis to an understanding of the theoretical principles of color and light by personal experience, something more like ‘learning by seeing then doing’. It should contemplate first, the individual observation of the phenomena in the surroundings and the environment by the students (and teachers) through the realization of a series of qualitative experiments; then, the record of the experience and the personal analysis and finally, remarks on the observed and on the practical work. This proposal raises the question of the relationship between light source and visual perception of space as the central node of the experience.