3+1: fundamental lighting categories
Above is a rendering I made to help explain a basic way to categorize light sources. Lighting can be broken down into three fundamental geometric categories: point sources, linear sources, and planar sources.
Now, we don’t live in a conceptually perfect Euclidean world, and the perception of relative scale of course matters in how one defines a certain light source. What is approximating a skinny “line” of light at a far distance resembles a rectangular plane of light at a near distance, so context is essential in these categorizations.
A direct result of this relative scale perception issue is that when points, lines and planes are aggregated together in clusters, they create visual textures across a meta surface. Let’s call these the “3+1” fundamental geometries of lighting.
lighting for the 1 in 4 humans with no electric lighting
While Howard Brandston makes a fool of himself demanding his “moral choice” to use 19th-century lighting technology, impoverished villagers in South America, India, and elsewhere are upgrading their entire standard of living by skipping from 17th-century oil lamps to 21st-century solar-LED systems.
Continue reading “lighting for the 1 in 4 humans with no electric lighting”
OMG! LED lighting is killing American freedom!
It appalls me to see how many blowhard crankpots are hiding behind the tenants of “personal freedom” and “liberty” and trying to actually reverse the residential energy efficiency standards enacted in 2007. I mean, come on…it was the one good thing Bush Jr. did for the environment!
The really twisted part is that history is sadly repeating itself. Like clinging to their glory days of long-gone youth, some people just can’t let go of past technologies. Did you know that people actually bemoaned the passing of gaslight in favor of electric light?
Continue reading “OMG! LED lighting is killing American freedom!”
acuity’s revel OLED fixture
Acuity’s OLED Lighting Design Center launched a couple products at Lightfair 2011, most notably the Revel fixture. There’s quite the parade of OLED fixtures being “launched” these days. “Launched” is a somewhat dubious term for many of these, as they … Continue reading acuity’s revel OLED fixture
osram’s “airabesc” oled + led fixture
OSRAM launched a stylish combination OLED + LED pendant fixture called the “Airabesc” at the recent iSalone/Euroluce show.
OSRAM has been experimenting with OLED technology for well over a decade now (I personally saw back in 1999 an early OSRAM prototype OLED while at Harvard’s School of Design ). Its nice to see OLEDs finally reaching the output levels needed for general illumination. And the fixture is definitely following the du jour architectural trends of biomimetic, swoopy styling enabled by digital design and fabrication.
modular lighting: scotty
I’ve discussed previously how sci-fi movies of the past provide terrific guidance as to the future of lighting, but this might be taking that a bit too literally: Modular Lighting has introduced “Scotty“, a recessed “downlight” version of their highly innovative “Spock” fixture (which I covered in this post). I put “downlight” in quotes very purposefully: This fixture is nothing like the downlight your grandfather used.
lighting inspiration: Steve Bella photography
Here’s some gorgeous long exposure photography experiments from Italian photographer Steve Bella. These images are just begging to be turned into fixtures. Bust out the electroluminescent strip lights and some diffusion media, and let’s get cracking! via PicoCool Continue reading lighting inspiration: Steve Bella photography
Firefly
Pisst….hey kid….come here….I got something that’s goin’ to blow your mind…..really mess you up….. http://www.fireflyexperiments.com “Firefly connects the world of CAD/CAM and parametric modeling to the emerging fields of interactive and responsive technologies, robotics, the internet of things, and more…” Continue reading Firefly
EXOtique Student Installation
Core77 posted an interesting little project called “EXOtique” from a group of four recent graduates of Ball State University’s College of Architecture and Planning. They produced a ceiling cloud structure for Ball State’s Institute for Digital Fabrication, made of styrene … Continue reading EXOtique Student Installation
Six-Forty by Four-Eighty Installation
Two MIT Media Lab alumi, Jamie Zigelbaum and Marcelo Coelho, put together a creative little interactive lighting installation using battery powered, touch sensitive, magnetically mounted and repositionable color tiles that communicate with each other wirelessly.
i.Materialise
An update to my previous post on Materialise’s 3D printing tech: Late last year, the Beligum-based Materialise launched a new site called iMaterialise that seems poised to compete directly with Shapeways.com web-based 3D printing service. One thing that differentiates them … Continue reading i.Materialise
on line by Bart Lens
Daily Icon has a post with a very slick LED-based linear track system design from LensAss, a Belgium architecture firm that works in conjunction with Eden Design.
tron: renderings
A couple more hot looking renderings to follow up my post below on Tron. Continue reading tron: renderings
Gawker Media: Moving Beyond the Blog
This is not lighting related, but this is a very interesting article from Nick Denton, the publisher of Gawker Media, about how they are advancing the design of their commercial blogs. It really provides insight into how these sites make money. Continue reading Gawker Media: Moving Beyond the Blog
backlit paper installation in cargo container
Inhabitat posted a beautiful art installation called “Hope Tree.” The installation used punched paper panels arranged in a toroidal shape, backlit with LED string lights, all mounted within a 20′ cargo container. Continue reading backlit paper installation in cargo container
Lighting Inspiration: Tron Legacy
Disney has been promoting its Tron reboot for what seems like several years at this point. I’m not a sci-fi geek, but this movie has caught my attention for its crazy, intrinsic use of lighting effects to achieve the movie’s overall aesthetic.
My contention has been that the future of lighting is clear: just look to past sci-fi movies to see what the environments of the future will look like. Star Wars and Blade Runner are two prime examples of environmental lighting visions that have already come to pass.
modular lighting/couvreur.devos
Belgian-based Modular Lighting Instruments have released two stunning fixture designs by the Belgian design duo Couvreur.Devos.
novaled OLED prototype fixture
Inhabitat has a post showing a snazzy OLED fixture prototype from Dresden, Germany’s Novaled. Continue reading novaled OLED prototype fixture
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
christie’s microtiles
Launched back in November 2009, Christie is selling an innovative back-lit display system called MicroTiles that combine DLP + LED technologies in a unitized 12″ high x 16″ wide x 10″ deep block.
Lucept 
