A few more words about challenges and difficulties in the field. Although in the arts it’s possible to expand your role in many ways, and artists can be creative in approaches to earning a living, some designers have dreams of a permanent job as a lighting designer. Unfortunately, there continue to be very few permanent positions for lighting designers who focus on artistic work in Finnish theatre. Due to cost cutting, the job market will continue to narrow in terms of project-based theatre commissions as well. Many self-employed designers battle exhaustion and burnout due to the perpetually short-term nature of the work, organizing sufficient working conditions and resources, or the lack of respect for work in the arts. There is competition over the scant employment opportunities, and there doesn’t seem to be enough full-time work for everyone. Jobs are handed out to a large extent on personal relationships without public application processes, and nepotism also exists. The field and its networks are male.
In some productions, lighting design and the lighting designer are still seen as an extraneous expense. Since the field is not that familiar and people are not interested in familiarizing themselves with light, its design for performance, or vocabulary, talking about light and the designer’s work can take the form of stereotypical simplification. The risk here is that the lighting design work itself remains the realisation of commonly executed conventions. At worst, the lighting designer is viewed as a merely technical executor whose dramaturgic-visual-ar-tistic thinking is of no interest to anyone.
There is little public debate in the field in Finland, and designers rarely re-ceive public feedback about their work. Few journalists write analytically about the visual aspect of works, for instance in performance reviews. It is by no means
a given in our country that the lighting design or its creator is mentioned in a theatre review or a critique.
In Finland, the interests of lighting designers are represented by Lighting, Sound and Video Designers in Finland (SVÄV). As a professional and labour organisation, its mission is to monitor and promote the compensation, profes-sional, social, and cultural-political interests as well as professional competence of its members: lighting, sound, and video designers. Previously known as the Union of Lighting and Sound Designers in Finland (SVÄL), the organisation was founded in 1992 and is a member organisation of the Trade Union for Theatre and Media Finland, Finland’s largest union in the arts and culture. (SVÄV 2016.) A new association has also been founded in the field of light art: the Finnish Light Art Society, or FLASH.7 Its mission (FLASH 2017) is to, through its activities, develop education, exhibitions, and other events in the field of light art as well as to communicate about them.
In conclusion
References to the diversity of professional roles in the field and making use of its collective expertise have been visible and readable at the Theatre Academy’s lighting design degree programme over the years. In the VÄS-opus, published by VÄS in 1989, the department head at the time, the deceased lighting design-er Simo Leinonen, wrote: “The degree programme is an opportunity to train well-rounded theatre professionals who, in addition to operating with light and sound during their time as students, become familiar with the entire scale of work in the theatre and who, if they want, might even be able to switch mediums and work as a scenographer, costume designer, dramaturge, or director. The intention is to educate professionals who understand theatre more broadly than through their personal professional role alone.”
Markku Uimonen notes in an interview-based article (Heinonen 2007, 187–
188): “We can consider what a talented, educated person will do if his skills remain unexploited. From an artistic perspective, you wouldn’t think anyone would have anything against making use of a combined scenographer–lighting designer–costume designer to design an entire production; it’s no longer a rarity these days for responsibility for the overall visual design of the piece as a whole
7 The Finnish Light Art Society FLASH was founded January 7, 2017 during a meeting held at the Cable Factory, Helsinki, in conjunction with Lux Helsinki.
to be borne by the lighting designer – issues of space are structured in relation to light in a key way.”
Uimonen (Heinonen 2007, 187–188) continues: “A new aesthetics and thinking will emerge through designing together and trusting in each others’ competence;
what we need now is associative explorations and all manner of ‘nosing about.’
It’s the era of the new ensemble …”
In his dissertation, (2012) Tomi Humalisto explores the question of doing things differently in lighting design within the context of the performing arts. In his conclusion, he (2012, 284) writes: “The perspective of a changing role in the field reveals that lighting design is not merely visual output, but that expectations and roles within the team have an impact on it. This being the case, it is natural to assume that factors involved in a specific culture of doing things also have an impact on the artistic end result.” According to Humalisto (ibid.), expanded and parallel job descriptions open up more room to move in lighting design, which also has an impact on the visual and spatial-temporal end result of the performance.
Breadth, expanding professional roles, overall visual design, nosing about, doing differently – all of this has been realised, all of it is our present reality.
Where will lighting design and higher education in the field turn next? What are the values of the degree programme, and are they shared by the entire VÄS community? What could be developed if we reflected on them?
SOURCES
LITERATURE
Gröndahl, Laura. 2014. ”Lavastus kohtaamisina ja kosketuksina.” In Kosketuksen figuureja, ed. Mika Elo, 72–91. Helsinki: Tutkijaliitto.
Hotinen, Juha-Pekka. 2002. Tekstuaalista häirintää. Kirjoituksia teatterista, esitystaiteesta. Helsinki: The-atre Academy & Like.
Humalisto, Tomi. 2012. Toisin tehtyä, toisin nähtyä. Esittävien taiteiden valosuunnittelusta muutosten äärellä (Done Differently, Seen Differently. On Changes in Lighting Design in the Performing Arts). Helsinki.
Theatre Academy.
Joro, Elisa. 1998. Valo- ja äänisuunnittelija. Kuvaileva kenttätutkimus ammatti-identiteetistä, koulutuksesta ja työelämästä. Helsinki: Theatre Academy.
Kallinen, Timo. 2004. Teatterikorkeakoulun synty. Ammattikoulusta akatemiaksi 1971–1991. Helsinki: The-atre Academy & Like.
Kilpeläinen, Raisa. 2011a. ”Onnea VÄS 1/2.” Meteli 4–5/2011. Kilpeläinen, Raisa. 2011b. ”Onnea VÄS 2/2.”
Meteli 6/2011.
Ruohtula, Sirje. ”Maailmankaikkeuden vanhin ammatti…! Tulkoon valkeus! – ja valkeus tuli.”
Teatteri 4/1987, 27.
Theatre Academy brochure. 1991. Helsinki: Theatre Academy.
VÄS-opus. 1989. Introductory publication for the Department of Lighting and Sound Design. Helsinki:
Theatre Academy.
INTERVIEWS
Eero Erkamo October 25, 2016 and April 24, 2017.
Tomi Humalisto October 16, 2016.
Liisa Ikonen April 7, 2017.
Riikka Karjalainen October 25, 2016 and January 3, 2017.
Kimmo Karjunen October 18, 2016.
Maarit Ruikka and Ari Tenhula April 11, .2017.
Interview material is in the author’s possession.
LECTURES AND SPEECHES
VÄS 30 vuotta. Teatterikorkeakoulun valosuunnittelun ja äänen koulutusohjelmien studia generalia luentosarja, History round table. October 25, 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5BBQJV3IMc. Accessed April 7, 2017.
Uimonen, Markku. 2008. Speech at the opening of the Valovuosi exhibition at the Theatre Museum. The text is in the author’s possession.
ONLINE SOURCES
Taideyliopisto 2017a. ”Valosuunnittelun koulutus- ja maisteriohjelmat.” www.uniarts.fi/valo. Accessed January 22, 2017.
Taideyliopisto 2017b. ”Teatterikorkeakoulun historia.” www.uniarts.fi/teak/historia. Accessed January 22, 2017.
SVÄV 2016. ”Suomen valo-, ääni- ja videosuunnittelijat SVÄV.” Teatteri- ja mediatyöntekijöiden liitto - SVÄL. SVÄV website. http://www.teme.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=-blog&id=61&Itemid=140#.WOeX8RGIBjM. Accessed October 16, 2016.
FLASH 2017. ”Suomen valotaiteen seura Flash on perustettu.” Pink Eminence. http://pinkeminence.fi/
suomen-valotaiteen-seura-flash-on-perustettu/. Accessed January 22, 2017.
Raisa Kilpeläinen (1979) is a Finnish lighting designer, scenographer, and artist.
Kilpeläinen has earned MA degrees in scenography (University of Art and Design Helsinki, 2009), lighting design (Theatre Academy Helsinki, 2008), and theatre and drama research (Tampere University, 2019). Alongside her freelance artistic work, she teaches at the Theatre Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki.
Kilpeläinen is also a writer, editor, and curator. She creates her own cross-dis-ciplinary pieces and participates in various collaborative projects, including the art collective KOKIMO (2010–), of which she is a founding member.
As an artist, Kilpeläinen has a specific focus on dramaturgy, light, space, site-sensitivity, realities, perceptions, and the stage. Her work has been exhibited and performed in Finland and internationally.
Kilpeläinen is a board member of the Finnish OISTAT Centre and the Finnish Light Art Society (FLASH). She chaired the board of Lighting, Sound and Video Designers in Finland (SVÄV), 2015–2019.