Nick Hunt ⁽⁴³⁾

I have started adding my research publications to the site, with the intention of making them more accessible to people who don't have access to academic libraries, or other means to access research publications. I am hoping to demystify what researchers do a little, and…

Drama Studio 2.0: A template for the performance learning space of the future Summary The theatre, event, film, television and related industries are undergoing a period of profound and rapid change. Industry sectors that used to operate largely independently are now seeing the cross-over of…

A sense of direction: the directionality of light and the creation of meaning and feeling on stage Summary The direction light comes from is one of its fundamental properties, alongside brightness and colour. However, the directionality of light on stage – the qualities, effects and…

In the mid 1970s, when I was about 13, I went with my Dad to Niarobi, Kenya, to see the steam locomotives still operating there. Dad was an airline navigator, and on his regular trips to Nairobi had befriended the shed master of the loco…

If you want to get in touch to discuss any of the content on this site, or to talk about future projects, you can contact me by email: logs@magmouse.co.uk.

Theolux is a lighting control interface I designed as part of my PhD research, to implement some of the concepts I developed as part of the research process: Both the concepts and the practical realisation of Theolux are described in detail in the documentation I…

You can find a list of my research publications on my Academia.edu page, including articles, book chapters, conference papers and projects. Academic publications are often only accessible to other academics who have access through their institutions. To make my work accessible to a wider audience,…

Passages was a devised performance created to develop, test and demonstrate aspects of my PhD research. Following the principles developed through that research, I undertook the role of 'lighting artist', creating the lighting throughout the rehearsal period using a bespoke lighting control system I designed…

I completed my PhD in 2011. My mixed-mode thesis was titled "Repositioning the Role of the Lighting Artist in Live Theatre Performance", in which I proposed a series of changes to the process of theatre lighting to give greater emphasis to creative decision-making in the…

‘What’s the Small Idea?’ is a research investigation that seeks to ‘stage’ a series of dichotomies to do with seeing. Theatres are machines for seeing, and the word theatre derives from the Greek theoria, to contemplate – both to gaze upon and to think about…

Traces is an interactive light installation by Nick Hunt and Hansjörg Schmidt, initially created for the Performing Light symposium at the University of Leeds in 2017. Since its initial appearance in Leeds, Traces has been recreated in a variety of forms, changing in scale and…

My research often engages with the history of technical theatre, not simply for its own sake, but also because knowing about the past is essential if we are to understand the present and how we got here. This in turn enables possible futures to be…

Light, Warmth and the End of the Age of Tungsten Since humans first learnt to control fire a million years ago, people have created artificial light through heat. For most of that time, the naked flames of open fires, candles and oil lamps have illuminated…

Theatre Polski, Warsaw

Plaza Cinema, Caracas

Her Majesty’s Theatre, London

Adelphi Theatre, London

Aula Magna, Caracas

Coliseum, London

Festival Hall, London

Stoll Theatre, Kingsway, London

Empress Hall, Earl’s Court, London

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

Palace Theatre, Manchester

National Opera House, Ankara

Palladium Theatre, London

Theatre Royal, Bristol

South Shore Icedrome, Blackpool

S’Carlos Opera House, Lisbon

The Original

This page contains information on the position of lighting controls systems in theatres, generally in the second half of the twentieth century. Information from: Reid, Francis. Yesterday’s Lights: A Revolution Reported. Cambridge: Entertainment Technology Press, 2005. This information was gathered by FR while researching a…

The Grand Master was an early electric stage lighting control system, using resistance dimmers and mechanical operation via levers, wheels, shafts and gears. As a part of my research, I have created a ‘virtual’ Grand Master - a software emulation that reproduces how the original…

I have been a railway enthusiast and modeller since an early age. My specific interests have varied over the years, and there have been extended fallow periods. In my teens and twenties I modelled the railway scene of my youth in the 1970s, initially in…

I have been interested in and practiced photography for as long as I can remember. My work is varied, but is centred on landscape, environments, objects and scenes, motivated by my interest in how light and the act of making a photograph can transform the…

I started my working life as a theatre lighting technician and designer, initially working in regional theatres and later freelancing across the UK. During that time I created over seventy professional lighting designs for theatre, dance and corporate events. I started working in higher education…

For the first part of my professional career I was as a theatre lighting technician and designer, before I started teaching on the Lighting Design degree programme at Rose Bruford College. Later I became the Head of the School of Design, Management and Technical Arts, responsible…

The Light Console was a unique and innovative lighting control system created by Fred Bentham in the mid-1930s. While it was not commercially very successful, it was of great significance in the development of lighting control, and challenged the ideas of the time about the…

A Significant Lighting Control Failure In the early 1970s, a unique lighting control system was installed in the Mermaid Theatre, London: Plotlite. At the time, Plotlite was the only system on the market to offer full memory control with fader-per-channel preset manual control, features the…

One of my long-term research interests is stage lighting control - not just the evolving technology used but, perhaps more importantly, the philosophy of how and why we choose to control light on stage in particular ways, and what this means for the art of…

Photoscenography is an ongoing research 'meta' project investigating the relationship between photography and scenography. The project has multiple elements, loosely interlinked, each of which approach the intersection of photography and scenography from a different perspective. At present, photoscenography has three elements - click the image…

My research interests first arose from my experiences as a professional theatre lighting designer, together with my work teaching lighting design at degree level. My PhD investigated the idea that theatre lighting could be performed rather than designed - that is, more of the creative…

The magmouse website is in the process of being rebuilt. I hope to have all the old content, and some new content, available over the next few weeks. Sorry for any inconvenience while we are under construction.