Blog #1 - Trying to Find Atmosphere

A few nights ago, I sat down in front of my T.V. to relax at the end of the day. I had two lights on: a warm, yellow lamp in the corner of the room behind me to my right, and three cold, white, overhead fluorescent lights in my kitchen to my left. I could see the room around me and the T.V. clearly, but the fluorescent lights from my kitchen made me feel alert and restless. I turned those lights off, leaving just the warm, yellow lamp on, and the atmosphere in the room became much more homely. I felt more like I was in a living room with a fireplace and less like I was in a busy kitchen, which I wanted. However, the room was too dark now; all of the corners (besides the corner with the lamp in it) became holes of darkness that seemed to suck up the welcoming light from the lamp. I tried to watch T.V. like this, but being surrounded by encroaching darkness made me feel uneasy, made the room feel smaller, and gave me a headache. So, I turned on two yellow overhead lights behind me to see if that would give the room more light while still maintaining the atmosphere of a warm home. Success! The room felt more open because there was more light, and the yellow color of the overhead lights maintained the warm atmosphere that I wanted. I'd solved my problem; that is, until I went to watch T.V. again. In the middle of the T.V. was a dark silhouette of my reflection, caused by backlight from the two overhead lights behind me. I couldn't watch T.V. clearly now... Not success. At this point I accepted my defeat, turned off the two lights behind me, and turned on the fluorescent kitchen lights. I decided that, although I couldn't achieve the welcoming atmosphere that I wanted, I could achieve the feeling of an open room that I could see clearly. Looking back on this experience, I find it interesting how the lighting in a room can cause physical sensations (such as my headache), can change my perception of the size of a room, and can set different atmospheres that give me different feelings in my body. I feel like this is something that I've probably experienced many times, but have never been conscious of until I made an effort to be.