The development of light art is closely linked to the technical achievements in this field. With the emergence of the light bulb in the early 19th Century had developed a new medium, the artificial light. But it took more than 100 years until artists began to experiment with this medium and create things that we see today as a precursor of light art. The technical development of light in the 20th Century was full of progress, there have been developed lighter and different-colored light bulbs and of course with much greater energy efficiency. In an arc lamp of the 19 Century were converted less than 10% of the consumed energy into light, with some light sources beginning of the 21st Century, these are more than 90%. This has several effects on the properties of the light bulb.
Two important changes in terms of light art are: less heat generation and longer life of the bulb. Practically, this means that the bulb can be installed in many ways, because she nodevelop more intense heat and no longer need to be changed as often. Light art of all kinds have thus become a lot more flexible. In addition, open up the possibilities of color and the control of lighting products for the design of new spaces with light. As with any art form is also in the light of the perception of art in public is a crucial criterion for a qualitative development. End of 70 years is still enough to set up a mirror ball with lights and a rotating color wheel in a corner of the room to the visitors with wonder and enthusiasm to move. 100 years ago a similar installation would probably have taken care of far more violent reactions. Beginning of the 21st Century have become such a play of light on everyday life. Light art and light installations are now much more part of the public space and therefore they are also growing awareness that viewers develop a sense of quality in terms of light art. The light artist with manifold light technology available: light source invarious shapes and colors, lenses and windows for defined dispersion, color transparencies for the presentation of each bulb so subtle nuance, different control signals to the networked control an unlimited number of lamps, projectors for displaying images. The variety of technical possibilities and the increasing public perception of light installations prove the fact that the light art is still at the beginning of your development.