Changing Perspective Changes Everything: The Future of Light with Daan Roosegaarde

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What happens when light beams collide at high speed? They can transform into matter – possibly explaining how celestial bodies form. This mind-blowing scientific reality perfectly captures the spirit of our conversation with Daan Roosegaarde, the visionary lighting designer who, despite being kicked out of fine art school twice, found his calling in pushing the boundaries of what light can achieve.

In his discussion with Martin Klaasen, Daan weaves through the fascinating parallel between resistance to new ideas and Galileo's revolutionary assertion that Earth orbits the sun – a perspective shift that took humanity 500 years to accept (and we still say "sunrise" despite knowing better). Daan argues that similar perspective transformations are essential in lighting design, where challenging established viewpoints can unlock unprecedented innovation. By bringing together diverse minds at events like Lux Futurum in Shanghai later this year, the lighting community creates space for these paradigm shifts to occur.

The future of lighting extends far beyond illumination. We're merely "scratching the surface" of light's potential to heal, create new dimensions, and allow us to experience the world through entirely different perspectives – imagine seeing through a butterfly's eyes while remaining human. Daan's passion for continued experimentation stems from his conviction that these innovations will fundamentally transform our relationship with our environment and ourselves. As he prepares to take the stage in Shanghai, his message resonates clearly: changing how we perceive light might just change everything else. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You obviously embody the spirit of Lux Futurum, and
that's why we have invited youto speak.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's really good that you put people from a certain
discipline the light industrytogether and exchange right, and
I think the goal of theconference is to sort of trigger
them and tease them in openingup their perspective of what
light could be and can be, andto sort of share and show what
is possible and the impact thatcan have, but also show people

(00:28):
that journey.
How do you go from idea torealization?
How do you trigger clients toapproach and and have the guts
to do new things right?
Like we're just scratchingwe're barely scratching the
surface of the potential oflight, how it can help us, how
it can heal us, how it cancreate dimensions that we don't

(00:50):
know.
I wish that I and we alltogether keep experimenting and
keep playing with it, becauseit's going to help us 100%.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Dan, welcome.
We have invited you as akeynote speaker in Shanghai in
China later this year, whereLuxperture for those who don't
know it's a recognition programfor innovative ideas, new
concepts, new projects, allembodying the future, we hope.

(01:34):
And you obviously embody thespirit of Lux Futurum and that's
why we have invited you tospeak and share your ideas.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
For somebody who was kicked out of fine art school
twice, that's a real compliment.
I finally fit somewhere Finally.
It took me 45 years.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
You definitely earned it and we look forward to you
presenting what are yourthoughts about this whole luxury
room that we developed and howthat could contribute to the
future of lighting lightingdesign.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, I mean, it's really good that you put people
from a certain discipline, thelight industry together and
exchange right.
And I think the goal of theconference or at least the
reason why I'm coming or when Iwhy I'm thinking I'm coming is
to sort of trigger them andtease them in opening up their
perspective of what lights couldbe and can be, and to sort of

(02:33):
share and show what is possibleand the impact it can have, and
not to suggest it's like easy,but also show people the journey
.
How do you go from idea torealization?
How do you trigger clients toapproach and have the guts to do
new things?
Right?

(02:54):
And I always go back to like 500years ago.
You and I, if we would havethis conversation, we most
likely would have thought theearth was the center of the
universe, right, and all thestars would rotate around us,
right.
And and we like that idea,right, we were in control, we
really like that idea.

(03:14):
And then suddenly Galileo cameand he said no, no, you're
living in a lie, right, actuallythe earth is turning around the
sun, 148 million kilometersaway from here.
And the Catholic church at thattime the biggest institution
really didn't like that idea.
So they grounded him for therest of his life.
He could not leave his housefor the rest of his life just

(03:37):
because he had the idea.
And then Copernicus came andKepler and they proved he was
right.
But we still, martin, todaycall it sunset, sunrise,
although it's not true.
And so it took us 500 years andwe still haven't fully accepted
it to go from that we are thecenter perspective to our no,

(04:01):
we're actually turning aroundthe sun.
Um, yeah, so what I'm trying toand I'm not suggesting I'm a
galileo, by the way, just forthe record, uh but but so to
change your perspective iseverything because, if you look
at things in a different way, itchanges everything your
relationship, your, your valuesystem, your words, right.

(04:21):
And so I hope the confidencethat we'll have on a maybe on a
bigger scale, but even on asmaller scale, but on a certain
scale, you know what I mean Likehelps people to change their
perspective.
And because when you changeyour perspective, everything
changes, and that's reallyimportant in a time like this.
Are we looking in the right way?
Are we really seeing what'sreal or not, or is it just an

(04:43):
illusion or a sentiment of thepast we're holding on to?

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Yeah, Well, part of the event is also to invite the
shortlisted winners to actuallygive a presentation about their
work, because just seeing apicture of their work is.
You know, it's all about sharingknowledge, education, knowledge
, education.

(05:06):
So we felt it was imperative tohave the winners come up
present and there's sort of.
Also, the incentive of thesubmission is that they'll be
invited to come to China andpresent their winning works so
that we can learn from it.
And at the same time we talkabout AI, we also put in the
submission form that we wantthem to declare the use of AI so

(05:27):
we can learn also about thatprocess.
Of what part did AI play in theidea creation or the concept or
the project that you'representing to us?
So we're looking very muchforward.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
And if you want, if you send all the images in
advance, I can put it all in mymid-jour journey and then create
a whole new design from all thewinning awards.
This was a joke.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
No, but it's a joke, but it's doable, it's feasible,
because obviously we'll have theengine yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Let's, let's, let's, let's order the the winners.
We can do a jazz.
A mid order the winners first.
We can do a jazz a mid-journeyjazz party afterwards.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
We're looking forward to have you there and much
appreciate your acceptance tocome and speak to the audience
there, this chat with giving youthe floor in terms of what do
you expect in terms of thefuture, for you as an innovator,
as an artist, but also for thelighting community, in terms of
where are we going?
What can we expect?
What would you ideally seehappening?

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Well, I mean, it's a hunch, right, but there are
really interesting, veryconcrete scientific studies that
you can read in sciencemagazine where, when you, when
two light beams hit each otheron high speed, in very specific
circumstances, they becomematter, and so the idea is that

(07:10):
that's how certain stars orplanets are created, right, and
so I think we just the idea justblows my mind, right, you know,
right, you just, and then youhave something like like a real
thing you can touch because oflight, and so I think we just or

(07:31):
a Nobel Prize winner of laser acouple of years ago like we're
just scratching, barelyscratching the surface of the
potential of light, how it canhelp us, how it can heal us, how
it can create dimensions thatwe don't know, how we can see
the world through the eyes of abutterfly, right, while we're
actually human.

(07:52):
And and so I, I, I, I wish thatI and we all together have that
open perspective on on the powerof light and um, and keep
experimenting and keep playingwith it, because it's going to
help us it.
It's going to help us as humans100%.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
I have this idea if, when you and I will have a drink
in Shanghai later this year,we'll be bouncing ideas and
creative concepts with eachother, because you look to me
like a person that you say onething and then suddenly boom,
you get this idea, or somethingelse.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
The mind is a weird thing.
The mind is a weird thing.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
Looking forward to it .
Thanks so much for this chat,dan, much appreciated.
Thanks, mark you.