Janet Armour-Jones

= Division III =

''This article is part of a Climax Div III Issue. By Josh Schneider, Arts &amp; Entertainment Editor.''



Janet Armour-Jones’s Div III project entitled LIGHT BRITE: The Power of Light Across Mediums evokes the childhood toy and the sense of playfulness Armour-Jones brings to the craft of light design. LIGHT BRITE considers lighting design from the specific, although not exclusive, angle of theater and the cinema. Armour-Jones has already amassed an impressive resume, working on various Hampshire theatrical productions such as The Wilson and Alva Show! and The Last Stop Between Us. Armour-Jones also did projection design for the production of Bind Their Wombs as well as producing her own short film, That Vast Obscurity Beyond the City, based on F. Scott Fitzgeralds’s The Great Gatsby. The film was conceived as a visual narrative, and focused mainly on the cinematography of light design.

In recounting Hampshire memories, Armour-Jones remembers a visit on Accepted Students Day. Walking in the Dakin quad and “having a guy with a pink puppet come up to me and say ‘Go tooooo Haaaampshire!” Armour-Jones took that puppet’s advice and recalls dear memories of Hampshire hospitality. Her first vivid memory of life at Hampshire was “being late for my orientation group because I either read the sheet wrong, or I forgot to change my watch, so I walked in right after everyone had done introductions. So they did it again for me, and no one forgot my name that day.”

Spending her first year in a Merrill basement double, Armour-Jones says she’ll miss “the people” at Hampshire the most. She cites the Prescott fire escapes as a favorite place on campus. By way of advice to current students, Armour-Jones suggests that you “get used to people not doing their part of projects, because everyone is so busy with their own thing.” This may sound pessimistic, but considering the communal nature of a theatrical production, Armour-Jones stresses the importance of self-motivation verses relying too heavily on other group members. “Do it yourself if you really care about it.”