Spotlight on Diversity May 2022
Miyoung Song-Carroll: Sculpting Her Own Career Path
Miyoung Song-Carroll was educated at Hongik University in Seoul and came to the US to attend the Pratt Institute. There she earned not one, but two master’s degrees: one in art history and one in sculpture. After her studies she designed dozens of illuminated public art installations.
One of Song-Carroll’s first jobs out of school was designing and engineering custom decorative fixtures, which is where she discovered architectural lighting design. She was interested in expanding from single sculptural pieces (e.g., chandeliers) to designing spaces and experiences. She cast her net wide and was thrilled to land a spot at Fisher Marantz Stone on Enrique Garcia Carrera’s team. She felt that, being of Mexican decent, he would perhaps understand her immigrant experience and language barriers.
Song-Carroll is currently an associate at Fisher Marantz Stone, having joined as a junior designer in 2005. Light art gave her a solid appreciation for the effects of illumination. “I worked with light and video projection in interactive installations in galleries and public parks in the city. How light interacts with spaces and the public always fascinated me.” The occupant experience remains at the core of her work. “[Sculpting] with various materials widened my views about what is possible in design; not only for creating design ideas, but also for maintaining them, longevity,” she explained. “‘Creating Magic,’ as FMS always says, is what we do.”
She described some early experiences with racism in the US: “Visiting job sites for FMS, I did not get full respect from contractors. I assume because I am Asian and a woman.” Also, when she started at FMS she did not have formal lighting design or engineering training. “With my strong accent, I worried that clients might feel that I was unqualified. So I studied and passed the LC exam and the LEED AP qualification, so that clients would have confidence in me as a professional.”
Back when Song-Carroll started in lighting design she did not see many other Asians. But it is different now. She describes FMS as perhaps 30% Asian and Pacific Islander. And she supports Principal Paula Martinez-Nobles in revisiting company policies and hiring practices at FMS to embrace equality, inclusion, and diversity.
“When I go to lighting seminars and conferences, young Asian students and designers come up to me and ask, How many Asians are in your company? They are looking for someone to look out for them, just like I was,” Song-Carroll said. It’s up to all of us to educate high-schoolers and undergrads about careers in lighting, and she supports many young lighting designers at FMS. But mentoring young designers with Asian heritage is more personal. “They sometimes feel more comfortable with me. I have more of an understanding of their design view and cultural background. For example, it’s not common in Asian cultures to self-promote and self-defend. So I try to encourage them to express themselves, which may be different from how they were raised.”
Peiheng Tsai: A Career in Light Born in Shadow
Peiheng Tsai explained that she launched her one-year adventure into lighting design back in 1998. Having come to the US to attend Columbia’s graduate school for architecture, she connected with L'Observatoire International while working at an architecture firm. She thought, Hey, lighting design could be a fun and educational experiment. “It’s been a very long year!” she joked.
Part of the initial allure was to work with a variety of architects on lots of different projects. “When architects hire a lighting designer, they expect you to contribute ideas. You’re jumping in at a very high level.” Tsai later started freelancing and then founded her own firm, PHT Lighting Design, in 2006. Since then, she’s found somewhat of a niche in higher education and residential. “But part of the fun of lighting is you can light a restaurant and then turn around and begin designing a ground-up building. There’s all kinds of different projects at different scales,” she said. “You never know what you’re going to design tomorrow.”
Tsai’s father was a general contractor, she explained, so she grew up on construction sites all over Taipei. She always knew that she would be an architect one day. In her work in the US, she said she’s seen other international designers take great pride in aesthetic aspects of their native culture or heritage. “But there’s not necessarily an identifiable Taiwanese aesthetic.” Further, she explained, in Taiwan, design is considered a for-hire service industry, less of a professional occupation as it is in the US.
When Tsai was young, Taiwan was not the economic powerhouse it is today. Electricity was a precious resource compared to well-off Western middle-class standards. “I was always told to turn off the lights to save energy. So it makes you appreciate the availability of electricity and light. Here today, now, there is light everywhere. Often too much light,” she reflected. This gives her a unique point of view when a project comes along that includes a sense of shadows and darkness. “How bright is bright enough? And how dark is dark enough? Personally, I find that far more interesting than looking at the IES guidelines.”
