Week 5: False Illusions

Over the weekend my boyfriend and I attended the 241st Marine Corps Birthday Ball, a highly significant annual celebration honoring the birth of the Marine Corps. This year, the ball was hosted at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. As we walked around the strip and the hotel, I couldn't help but assume that completing this assignment was going to be easy this weekend. Vegas is overfilled with flashing signs and lights. However, this assignment was difficult for the very fact that Vegas is jam packed with obnoxious, flashy lights that don't elicit much emotion. I chose this photo of an extravegant chandelier in Caesar's Palace because this was one of the few lights I encountered that gave me a slight emotional context. The ornate design of the fixture paired with the dangling crystals that reflected the light made me feel like I was in a fancy, elegant world. As I noticed this overhead lighting, I realized that the intoxicating smell of smoke, boisterous people, and obnoxious sounds coming from all directions depleted this false sense of elegance. The lighting attempted to create the illusion that we were in a classy, elegant location, however, this false sense of class was immediately recognizable by the overpowering environment that this lighting fixture attempted to hide.