We tend to think that scenery begins with the scenic designer alone. But lighting has long been part of scenery. As expressionistic approaches to staging have become more common, the visible presence of lighting has moved beyond the concert stage and into the theatre. Theatre productions increasingly expose fixtures and use them as part of the visual environment rather than hiding them above or behind the set.
In these cases, lighting contributes to the scenery through the physical presence of the units themselves. Once lighting fixtures are clearly visible to the audience, their bodies, luminous surfaces, and arrangement become part of the stage image.
This is particularly evident with fixtures that have a large and recognizable luminous surface. Conventional profiles or Fresnels can disappear into the rig while their beams carry most of the visual information. A TMB Solaris Flare behaves differently. Its broad rectangular face remains legible from the auditorium. The Chemical Brothers have used large groups of Solaris Flares as part of the concert environment. Their repeated luminous surfaces can function like scenic panels and help shape the different visual worlds of the show.
The same principle can be applied in theatre. A visible fixture can act like an architectural unit, a hanging object or a glowing panel. Several fixtures placed together can create a line, a field or a suspended mass. Their shape matters, but their number also changes how the group is perceived.
People tend to direct their gaze towards the center of an object or a composition. In an evenly spaced arrangement with an even number of fixtures, that center always falls in the empty space between the two middle fixtures. In an evenly spaced arrangement with an odd number of fixtures, a fixture occupies the center itself. This gives the eye a clear object on which to settle and can make the group feel more visually stable.
My earlier research compared symmetrical lighting compositions made with odd and even numbers of lights. Participants were shown pairs of symmetrical lighting arrangements that differed only in whether they contained an odd or even number of lights. They showed a preference for the odd-numbered compositions. It suggests that quantity can affect the visual response even when the practical function of the lights remains similar.
Genesis’s The Last Domino? Tour offers a useful example. Five independently moving lighting pods were suspended above the stage. The central pod created a clear axis while two pods on either side completed the group. As the pods moved into different formations, the central unit continued to give the overall structure a visible point of balance.
A related effect appears at the end of Act One in Wicked. As Elphaba rises during Defying Gravity, five stark beams point towards her. One beam shares her central axis while the others expand around it. The lighting directs attention towards the performer and forms a temporary scenic structure around her.
When you next leave lighting fixtures visible in a production, why not consider the image they create before their beams reach the stage? Does the group have a clear center? Could an odd-numbered arrangement provide one? Are the fixtures large and recognizable enough to read clearly from the auditorium? Once these questions become part of the design, the lighting fixtures become part of the scenery.
Jason Ahn is a lighting designer and associate designer based in London. He began his career at Woodroffe Bassett Design and has worked at some of the UK's most iconic venues, including the National Theatre and Barbican Centre, and in theatres in the West End. He trained at Rose Bruford College and Seoul Institute of the Arts.
Ahn's work in lighting design and the arts is informed by his research in neuroesthetics [neuroaesthetics in the UK] which explores how the brain recognizes, processes, and responds to artistic experiences. This theory is presented in his book, Neuroaesthetic Stage Lighting Design: What Makes Good Light, published by Routledge in 2025. Jason Ahn [email protected]