Drama 16 Stage Lighting

9am Thursday, 57th st. & 8th ave. NYC

A single red stoplight

At this intersection just below the stoplight was one of those orange chimney-like cones they place over a manhole to vent steam from below the street. The steam was rising and zigzagging in front of the red light, while the light fixture itself wavered slightly in the breeze. It was a stark cold moment that emphasized what can be a cold unfeeling city at times. The light felt lonely only to seemingly wish to be warmed by the steam rising in front of it but never touching.

source: http://bluelavasolutions.com/

This is a bit of a cheat. The picture is clearly lava so we know that intellectually it should be hot, but most of us are conditioned to think light in the red side of the spectrum is “warmer” and blue is “cooler”. The volcano here is in Indonesia and the blue lava phenomenon is from the large amounts of a particular sulphur present that emits the color blue when it is ignited. This made me think of the the dance choreographer that I mentioned in class who had the typical red/blue warm/cool idea reversed; perhaps she’s from Indonesia…