“Lighting shines most when it’s invisible” — Korean Designer Lighting London’s West End
Creatrip Team
a month ago
Hyoyoung Ahn, the only Korean lighting designer working on London’s West End, says the best lighting is the kind you don’t notice because it serves the story, not itself. Inspired as a child by X Japan, Ahn studied theater in Korea, earned a master’s in the UK, worked on the National Theatre lighting team, and contributed to the West End production of Stereophonic. He applies neuroaesthetics (a discipline that links brain responses to aesthetic experience) and cognitive concepts like the “magic number 7” to explain why simpler, odd-numbered arrangements and limited visual elements help audiences focus. Ahn contrasts UK and Korean stages—UK’s smaller, constrained theaters encourage essence-focused design, while some large Korean multipurpose venues push toward spectacle—and praises BTS’s Gwanghwamun comeback performance for its world-class lighting. Now back in Korea, he aims to introduce a “beauty of subtraction” and “aesthetics of darkness” to help Korean directors create works where reduced light reveals the narrative’s core.
