Abstract:
Objective of this research is to study effects of illumination direction and color temperature of the light on viewing handwoven fabric in museum. The effects of different lighting directions and colors were observed in a test room. Sixty participants assessed their light perception under 24 lighting scenarios, which consisted three sets of illumination direction: direction parallel to the weft (0°), direction of inclination angle with the weft (45°) and direction perpendicular to the weft (90°), and two sets of color temperature: 3000K and 4000K. Handwoven silk fabrics with red thread brocade, green thread brocade, gold thread brocade, and silver thread brocade were displayed during the experiment. Data was collected from questionnaire through the semantic differential scale. The results showed that the illumination direction and the color temperature had statistically significant effects on viewers' perceptions. Overall, it was found that the illumination direction perpendicular to the weft (90°) in combination with the color temperature of 3000K promoted a wide range of positive perceptions in terms of colorfulness, smoothness, luxuriousness, glossiness, surface texture, clear pattern and metallic character of the fabric. From the study, it is recommended that lighting design for the handwoven silk exhibition should consider fabrics color tones and types of thread. Using appropriate illumination direction and color temperature could promote the most positive perception effects for handwoven fabric displays.