Light Design

All the small things!

There’s a scene in Burning (2018) where one of the characters, Hae-mi, talks about a light in her small apartment that appears for a brief moment. It’s sunlight that is reflected from the Seoul Tower, projecting across the neighborhood, into her tiny room and hits a part of her wall. For her, this represents a glimmer of hope in an otherwise pretty bleak existence.

Ever since this movie, I’ve marveled every time the sun finds its way into my apartment (or I like how I find my way to it, like a scavenger hunt). Coincidentally enough, there is a large glass building in downtown that reflects the sun rising in the East, right into my own home. Even though this happens every morning, I always feel lucky enough to witness it. My mind zooms out into the universe and I see the Sun, this red orange behemoth glowing in an infinite black space. And I think about how this light that I see has traveled 91.897 million miles to hit that building about a half a mile away from me, and back into my home.

That light is from the building across the neighborhood

Can’t see the sunrise, but I still see the sunrise

And if that wasn’t enough. I get to see the sunset as it moves across the sky, into the West.

How could I not feel lucky?