Light, Scaled Video


2017 Student Competition Photo Gallery


2017 Judges

Ross Barna, RAB Lighting
Tim Licitra, IES North America
Enrique Peiniger, OVI
Suzan Tillotson, Tillotson Design Associates


Student Competition Committee

Chair:
Erin Gussert, Regency Lighting

Board Advisor:
Shaun Fillion, NYSID | RAB Lighting

Founding Advisor:
Randy Sabedra, RS Lighting Design

Members:
John Delfino, Available Light
Brigid Hardiman, Independent Lighting Designer
Golsana Heshmati, HLB Lighting
Kass Negash, W. Allen Engineering PLLC
June Park, AKF Group

 


 

Frequently Asked Questions >

 


Winners of The 2017 New York City Student Lighting Competition

 

First Row: Alex Guerra, Iris Ahn, Youn Hee Choi, Hsiao-Yuan Chang, Sunmin Park, Lucie Austen, Minh Lai.  Second Row: Erin Gussert, (Chair), Enrique Peiniger (Keynote Speaker and Judge). Back Row: Kass Negash (Committee), Shashank Singal, Joanna Filter, Shaun Fillion (Advisor), Flo Peters, Chang Sung Lee, Aaron Green. Not pictured: Marta Casarin
Photography by Naomi Castillo

Grand Prize Winners
Marta Casarin, Joanna Filter and Shashank Singal

Project Title: Passage

 

Since 2000, the IESNYC has invited students from New York City Art and Design schools to participate in a city wide design competition. The competition empowers students to explore light as an art form, demonstrate light as a stimulus, and prove light as a valuable medium.

Every year, students in lighting, architecture, interior design, art, product design, photography and electrical engineering programs have submitted projects, resulting in a diverse showcase of ideas and interpretations on a single theme.

This year’s theme, LIGHT, SCALED, challenged students to construct a three-dimensional study that explores the scale of light and its impact on perception. Light informs our perception of scale and space, changing how we see the world around us. As we move through our environment and shift our perspective, the scale of light influences our perception. Light is present at every scale: as a traveling photon, a playful luminaire, or the memorable Manhattan skyline.

Participating Schools
City College, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Fordham, New York Institute of Technology, New York School of Interior Design (NYSID), New York University, Parsons New School for Design, Pratt Institute

 


Congratulations to all our 2017 Winners!

GRAND PRIZE WINNERS

Project Title: Passage

Marta Casarin, Joanna Filter and Shashank Singal
MFA Lighting Design, Parsons The New School for Design
Instructor: Derek Porter

This installation is a journey into an abstract world. The eye follows the dot, the starting point for everything in this universe, as it morphs into the transient room surrounding the observer. The light at the end of the tunnel is the only thing that is constant, while the glowing container changes shape and size, drawing the observer into the void. The gradual construction of the room from the dot – and its eventual withering away – is a metaphor for the material world, which is rendered into existence by nothing but light.

 

SECOND PLACE

Project Title: Sonder

Flo Peters
Bachelor of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute
Instructor: Willy Schwenzfeier

This fixture was inspired by the undulating curves and the gradient colors of the Antelope Canyon. When the light is off, the front surface of the fixture appears to be a regular mirror. When the light is on, one can see the glowing inner edges behind the mirror repeating themselves into infinity. This infinity effect creates a perceptual illusion of scale as th4e colorful edges appear to be smaller and less saturated as they go further away from the viewer.  The fixture has two components, the larger one features a warm color gradient. The size of these two components is also an experiment with scale. Together they form a duality of two color temperatures repeating themselves into darkness.


THIRD PLACE

Project Title: Depth Perception

Chang Sung Lee
Bachelor of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute
Instructor: Scott VanderVoort

Using the brightness of light this project plays with our sense and perception of depth.  Multiple layers of Mylar carefully cut into simple geometric shapes create an abstract composition.  By controlling a variety of layers and opacities these formations control the scale of light through the screen. With these different light scales, the two-dimensional surface creates an illusion that appears a richer sense of dimensional space, thus creating a deeper spatial quality and scaling light.

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Project Title: Untitled

Tayler Kim
Bachelors of Architectural Studies, Pratt Institute
Instructor: Willy Schwenzfeier

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Project Title: Ombra

Alex Guerra, Dual Degree Master of Architecture and Fine Arts, Parsons the New School of Design
Iris Ahn, MFA Lighting Design, Parsons the New School of Design
Youn Hee Choi, MFA Lighting Design, Parsons the New School of Design
Instructor: Derek Porter

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Project Title: Light Proximities

Hsiao-Yuan Chang, MFA Lighting Design, Parsons the New School of Design
Sunmin Park, MFA Lighting Design, Parsons the New School of Design
Lucie Austen, MFA Lighting Design, Parsons the New School of Design

Instructor: Derek Porter

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Project Title: Into the Abysses

Minh Lai
Master of Professional Studies in Interior Lighting Design, New York School of Interior Design
Instructor: John Katimaris and Eric Chenault

 

HONORABLE MENTION

Project Title: Church

Aaron Green
Master of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute
Instructor: Peter Barna





Keynote Speaker Enrique Peiniger

Architectural engineer and OVI Principal, Enrique Peiniger approaches lighting design holistically. For Enrique, this has become a precise, technologically groundbreaking methodology (Lighting Powers of 10) that provides custom solutions for all types and scales of award-winning lighting projects spanning the globe. An accomplished lecturer and lighting educator, Enrique has led lighting design workshops and presented at professional lighting congresses and universities worldwide, including lectures at Yale University, Light Insight Arabia Conference in Dubai, Light Middle East in Dubai, the Technical University of Berlin and Parsons The New School for Design.

Enrique’s holistic approach influences and renders OVI as a culturally sensitive lighting studio that activates space through the use of natural and artificial light, the manipulation of architectural materials and surfaces, and the creation of novel technological systems. Their beautifully inventive use of light responds to each project’s individuality creating iconic designs that have become part of our cultural memory. The subject of two monographs, Lighting Design Process and Lighting Powers of 10, OVI’s work was also the subject of a solo exhibition at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin.


If you have any questions, please email [email protected] 


About the IESNYC Student Competition

The IESNYC Student Lighting Competition is dedicated to our founder, Patricia DiMaggio. As an NYC educator and past president of IESNYC, we uphold Patricia’s goals of education, community, and friendly competition. Having grown from 8 students in 2000 to over 200 students today, it is a legacy which will continue to grow with all your support.

One of the goals of the IESNYC is to promote education and greater awareness about the importance of lighting and the Student Competition is one of the contributors towards these efforts. Since 2000, they have invited students from New York City Art and Design schools to participate in a city wide design competition. The competition empowers students to explore light as an art form, demonstrate light as a stimulus, and prove light as a valuable medium. Every year, students in lighting, architecture, interior design, art, product design, photography and electrical engineering programs have submitted projects, resulting in a diverse showcase of ideas and interpretations on a single theme. The IESNYC Student Competition has been incorporated into the curriculum lighting classes in several area schools and has piqued an interest in lighting design of close to a thousand design students to date.


2025 IESNYC Event and Educational Sponsors

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