Love your lights

Posted Wed, Dec 8, 2004 at 09:53 PM

LEDs are hot hot hot.

I strolled through the magazine store today and virtually all the architiecture and interior design magazines feature LEDs in one form or another whether it's for accent or for functionality.

And because LEDs use only 15% of the energy required by a incandescent light bulb and they last longer, we'll probably see them more and more outside of electronics.

Here's another LED artist: Leo Villareal. In case you're still clueless as to what I'm aiming for, his Bulbox 3.0 is pretty close to how the patterns on PoC will look. Not suprisingly, he graduated from the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program. Next to the MIT Media Lab, I don't think I've seen a school output so many artsy people (in North Amercia) interested in physical computing.

Lastly, I finally had a chance to flip through the Transmaterial catalogue which is a compilation of new and emerging material. My favourites: smog-fighting paint that absorbs car emissions (p112) and biodegradable plastic (p127) -- eat it or just let it melt into the gound. I think that I will pass up on the fractal inspired fabric (p 184) though. It's almost as bad (and not as funny) as this guy.

(p.s. The secret to Ingo Maurer's LED table is revealed on page 87.)