A Flash of Emotion: Investigating the Psychological Effects of Club Lighting
There was a key moment during Kelela’s Take Me Apart concert at Berghain, just before the artist launched into “Better,” when the room suddenly illuminated in soft monochrome lights and subdued shades of gold. As the white smoke engulfed her, she held back tears and announced to the crowd, “This one always makes me cry.”
Jun 15, 2023
Published February 08, 2020. Words by Caroline Whiteley, photos by Ant Adams & Ralph Larmann.
It seemed her wounds were still fresh from the breakup that inspired her 2017 debut album on Warp. And the color yellow, which signifies positivity and happiness, as well as clarity, enlightenment, and remembrance, conveyed all the conflicting emotional states encapsulated in what was one of the most tender live shows I had ever experienced.
Light is one the most important stimuli for influencing human perception, and it can have a direct effect on the psychological well-being of individuals. Correctly used, a space’s light can be used to communicate specific moods and trigger emotional responses. According to “The experience of nature: A psychological perspective,” published by researchers Kaplan and Kaplan in 1988, “a change in texture or brightness in the visual array is associated with something important going on in the scene […].” In a club setting, this could imply a pivotal moment in musical performance.
“If you dig into [Kelela’s album], it’s deep. She’s singing about a lot of things that are heavy and very emotional, so I wanted to be able to play that drama out visually,” Michael Potvin, the man behind her concert’s color framing, says over the phone from his Brooklyn office. “Amber was a very honest color for this intimate moment, so that the song and its lyrics could shine through, without flashing or other lighting tricks.”
“If you dig into [Kelela’s album], it’s deep. She’s singing about a lot of things that are heavy and very emotional, so I wanted to be able to play that drama out visually,” Michael Potvin, the man behind her concert’s color framing, says over the phone from his Brooklyn office. “Amber was a very honest color for this intimate moment, so that the song and its lyrics could shine through, without flashing or other lighting tricks.”
Potvin is the founder of Nitemind, a studio practice specialized in creating “immersive and interactive installations as well as dynamic and performative light shows at festivals and venues.” In its ten years of existence, the studio has amassed a portfolio of lofty clients in the fashion world such as Alexander Wang and Comme des Garçons, visual artist Korakrit Arunanondchai, Marvel’s Netflix show Luke Cage and tech giant Google, but its origins are in nightlife.
In the early 2010s, Potvin was involved in Steel Drums, a now-defunct Brooklyn club that hosted East Coast dance music legends like Physical Therapy, Galcher Lustwerk, Anthony Naples, Max McFerren, Ital (A.K.A. Relaxer) and Aurora Halal. A collaborative friendship with Halal led to Nitemind’s work with Sustain-Release. During the legendary weekender in upstate New York, Potvin and his team temporarily transform a kid’s summer camp into a rave utopia, fully equipped with video-mapped LEDs, lasers, UV light blasting on the grounds’ basketball court and abundant fog machines pumping out smoke surrounding sweaty bodies. One attendee I spoke to recalls having a full “falling through outer space” hallucination in one of the rooms with 360-degree strobes traveling front- to-back and sideways across the ceiling.