Light, Information and Perception inside Historical Buildings. A Case Study

Many literature studies demonstrated that technologies belonging to cognitive neuroscience can be used in museums. Physics, optics, thermodynamics and neurosciences applications can provide an important support to applied and practical research for lighting our Cultural Heritage. In our research we provided a multidisciplinary integrated approach for the study of the luminous climate inside a historical building: Villa La Quiete in Florence is the case study. The quantitative measurements of the relationship between observer and artworks were performed, with eye-tracking technique application. The Information Theory, read on a thermodynamic basis, the ergonomy of the multi-perceptive learning and optical physics, were the fundamental tools for the assessment of the correct light sources in terms of spectral emission and colour light temperature. The eye-tracking technique combined with the results of lighting parameter quantification, allowed checking how the colour of light changes the observer's perception, and from the information theory point of view, the communication and interpretation process of the signals due to different lighting. At the same time, it was also possible to measure by assessing the perceptive data of the visual path, and thus the neg-entropy, the informative content of the interaction of light with works of art.