night... sunlight on a tumbling
brook... the heaven full of stars
... birch trees interlaced by a motor
car’s headlights.
Play of brilliants excites the optic
nerves... stimulates the body and
spirit and charms the senses. It cre-
ates a feeling of aliveness, alerts the
mind, awakens curiosity, and sharp-
ens the wits. It quickens the appetite
and heightens all sensations. It can
be distracting or it can be entertain-
ing.
Sparkle is scintillation. It is a tiny
microscopic bombardment of points of
light—the most exciting kind of light
there is. It stimulates and arouses
appetites of all kinds; chandeliers in
dining rooms, sequins on dresses, and
lights on theatre marquees all take
advantage of the fact^1 [figure 2.8].
Outdoors, during daytime, the sky pro-
vides the ambient light. Objects and sur-
faces that are illuminated by the sun, such
as a meadow, trees, or the side of a building,
are the focal glow. The reflection of the sun
from specular surfaces, such as moving
water, dew on leaves, or polished metal on a
building, supplies the sparkle.
At the beach, the ambient light provided
by the sky is balanced by the diffuse,
PSYCHOLOGY
Figure 2.7Focal glow.
(^1) John Marsteller, “A Philosophy of Light: Recalling Rich-
ard Kelly’s Three Functional Elements,”Interior Design
February 1987: 78–80.