gaga for zhaga

In the realm of plain ol’ white light, there is a desperate need in the industry for basic standardization of LED lamp modules.  This would be akin to ye olde Edison screw base…but the 2010 version.  Without such standardization, the adoption rate of LED technology for general illumination will be stifled.  Who wants to install expensive fixtures that use flavor-of-the-month LED technologies, custom circuit boards and drivers, non standard geometries, and “disposable” non-relampable fixture designs.  Most specifiers that I’ve spoken with certainly don’t want to…and that is why you are not seeing many projects using LEDs for general illumination, even though the LEDs … Continue reading gaga for zhaga

the problem with reps and distributors

This a great quote, nicknamed “The Shirky Principal,” attributed to Clay Shirky. “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” If lighting reps (or better yet, the actual manufacturers) simply posted lighting costs and markups openly, poof…no more reps. If lighting manufacturers simply took money directly from…OMG…the actual customer, there would be no more need for wholesale distributors. Continue reading the problem with reps and distributors

sculpture + projection = awesomeness, part two

Yet another sculpture + projection installation: Designboom has a post on installation called “Morphology“, which employs simple white cubes as projection surfaces.  Melbourne artist Kit Webster projects extraordinary digital kaleidoscope effects on the cubes, some of which really distort visual space perspective in amazing ways.  The video … Continue reading sculpture + projection = awesomeness, part two

sculpture + projection = awesomeness

Core77 posted an installation called “Augmented Sculpture” by German artists Grosse8 and Lichtfront. Consisting of an angular wooden sculpture surrounded by four precisely registered video projectors, Lichtfront seamlessly projects a dazzling sequence of patterns onto the sculpture. These guys should get T-shirts made up that say: “Trigonometry rocks my world!” Continue reading sculpture + projection = awesomeness

SEED Magazine: The Evolution of Illumination

SEED Magazine has an interesting piece on bioluminescent organisms. One paragraph in particular reads like Mother Nature’s version of interactive lighting control: “Their lights have a variety of purposes: Camouflage, attracting mates, attracting (or distracting) prey have all been observed. In animals with nervous systems, in most cases, neural activity initiates the bioluminescence. But in the velvet belly lantern shark, Lynn says, researchers found that the glowing was not caused by nerve cells. Instead, it seemed, certain hormones controlled the glow: Melatonin and prolactin turned it on, and a hormone called Alpha-MSH turned it off. This makes some sense, as … Continue reading SEED Magazine: The Evolution of Illumination

“less or else” is becoming a bore

Editor’s Note:  You may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in the past month.  This is because I took an exciting new job and my family and I moved across country.  Needless to say, I’ve had zero time for blogging. My new position is Senior Marketing Manager – LED Systems at Micron Technologies.  Never heard of Micron?  Don’t worry…if you are in the lighting industry, I’m sure you will in the next year.  Micron is a huge manufacturer of memory chips and other semiconductor products, and is launching a new line of LED products. But more on that later.  For … Continue reading “less or else” is becoming a bore