[HN Gopher] Bringing Roman Light to Life
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Bringing Roman Light to Life
Author : Hooke
Score : 70 points
Date : 2024-06-22 03:59 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.journals.uchicago.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.journals.uchicago.edu)
| ggm wrote:
| A great display and certainly contextualising but I can't help
| thinking 3d game engines do a better job of immersive experience
| with smoke and gloom.
|
| Adequate lighting to read didactic panels undermines the prime
| objective here.
| gabesullice wrote:
| > Clearly, Roman lamps have lost their agency, presented as
| objects in museums or in photographs--a problem addressed by
| encouraging visitors to handle replicas of lamps and to light
| them virtually
|
| I was disappointed to see so many photos of lamps behind glass,
| presented in a museum. Where are the visitors handling replicas
| or screenshots of lamps lit in a virtual environment?
| fch42 wrote:
| Amazing to see a curator attempt to give us an impression how
| lighting "felt" in antiquity.
|
| Today, we too often see light as mere utilitarian anathema to
| "darkness" - which breeds evil, is to be banned to the shadows,
| or better yet eradicated altogether. As a consequence, we spill
| light everywhere. We kill the dark as if it's a disease, and
| deprive ourselves of a cosmic experience - the night sky, the
| magic experience of dusk and dawn, the conscious intake of bright
| summer sunlight as well as brief-if-invigorating winter sun. We
| turn night into day and forgot how, if at all, we can cherish and
| celebrate the difference.
|
| Before, this was reversed. Night-time lighting served as an
| ornament, a celebration or display of art, or at least very
| consciously used to "spot" - light a path, show a door, paint
| with shadows. Make light a celebration in solstice bonfires, use
| candles as little boosters on christmas promising a
| nicer/warmer/brighter season just round the corner. Light was
| pleasure, luxury, promise, comfort.
|
| Much of lighting today is needless and useless throwaway trash.
| It's used like painting the entire world flourescent green. Just
| with light. Not unimpressive as a technical feat. To me, just
| wrong, emotionally. If god had wanted us to live in permanent
| daylight, life would have been created on a planet rotation-bound
| to its star ...
| empath75 wrote:
| I guarantee if the romans had access to high-powered electric
| lighting, they'd have put it _everywhere_.
| gibolt wrote:
| It isn't that hard to imagine strips of LEDs on tons of their
| structures. Completely agree that they'd likely have used
| them if they could
| sandworm101 wrote:
| We forget how terrifying darkness was in the past. We are not
| afraid today because we have a host of resources that will come
| to our rescue. We walk along a dark path in full knowledge that
| should we slip and break a leg, it won't be a big deal. We will
| miss a day or tow of work but can be expect to be up an running
| marathons within a couple months. But for a Roman, a broken leg
| was a life-altering and often deadly event. So that forest path
| lit only by starlight may seem romantic today but for most of
| human history was something to be diligently avoided.
| Anotheroneagain wrote:
| You won't break a leg just from slipping and falling.
| RoyalHenOil wrote:
| But people DO break legs from doing exactly that? Falling
| is one of the most common causes of tibia fractures and
| patella fractures.
| schwartzworld wrote:
| Lol says you. I've broken two feet and an ankle. That's
| three separate injuries on three separate occasions.
|
| None of them were when I was doing something actually
| dangerous. The ankle was in a Walmart parking lot. The
| first foot was on the steps of a hotel.
|
| Admittedly I'm a big dude so these injuries might not have
| happened to a smaller person. But people get fragile as
| they age anyway, and lots of old people have broken hips
| from tripping and falling.
| dylan604 wrote:
| In modern times, we don't really think about lights or having to
| keep a supply of a light source on hand. But when ever I see
| period pieces showing candles used as light sources, it makes me
| think about how important keeping candles in stock was and were
| they only something the rich could have.
|
| The idea of pretty much not doing anything after dark except from
| sleeping sometimes seems very attractive. Sure, fireplaces could
| provide some light, but it's just one of those can't quite grok
| life where a light source at night would be so just not so
| readily available.
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Candles were the big flashlights of the time. Most people
| having to work in the dark would have used something like an
| oil lamp if stationary, or a rushlight if they needed to carry
| a light with them.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rushlight
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