My friend and I are currently running a kickstarter campaign for this project. We are pretty much at the final developing stages of the lamp. Feel free to leave feed back. Thanks.
A DIY PARAMETRIC LIGHT FIXTURE
The Design
Blime is a DIY Parametric light fixture that can be assembled at home and shipped flat. Because its design is parametric and fabricated with a laser cutter, Blime can be easily customizable. For kickstarter we are offering 24 colors in card stock paper and a white version in 100% recycled and recyclable vellum.
Blime’s form is derived from the audio of a friends gathering in a living room space and its largest diameter represents the gut of this party.
Blime is a byproduct of the audio taken in a living room setting during a gathering of friends and scripting technology that used generative algorithms. We essentially take the audio, visualize it and use the highest and lowest peek to generate the proportion of the belly.
The Name
The form, given by the highest and lowest point of the audio data produces a revolving surface similar to a teardrop. Sublime is the process in which a solid quickly transforms into gas state without passing through a liquid middle state. Blime is a representation of that missing state in the form of a teardrop.
Your first post, another kickstarter project; what a surprise.
We are pretty much at the finals developing stages of the lamp.
Pardon my facetiousness, but if you were seeking a honest critique from professional designers I’d be a lot more receptive to your project. If you had included some conceptual sketches, or photos depicting how you arrived at the final design I would have been more receptive.
Sorry about the way I came across with my post to this forum. We actually submitted the project to blogs -at - core77 but wanted to have a casual conversation through the forum.
After reading the post that you linked on your previous comment, I can see why a Kickstarter link would automatically come across as spam.It is true that we are looking for exposure. But is also true that we would love comments, even if BLIME never makes it to the front page of core77.
My mistake was to post the Kickstarter link. But this is actually the way we can communicate the project better. The title of my post or the content never mentions Kickstarter.
Here is the design process, I would really appreciate your comments or other readers’ comments:
(TECH PHASE)
To develop the form of the light fixture we used sound recorded in a living room space while having dinner with our friends. We imagine BLIME to be placed in this context. We believe that by using this embedded spatial information, we can relate the object better to its environment
Recording device: Iphone and a piezo electric
Next we read this audio with processing to create a CSV file that was eventually plotted into Rhino using a Rhino.Python script. Once the audio was plotted in a linear fashion, we took the smallest and largest value in the data to make the curved profile that eventually served as a revolving curve to develop the teardrop shape.
Our process is very digital so not a lot of sketches are found in our process, here is the very first one which shows a design intention and not a defined proportion.
Sketch showing our intention to use sound as mechanism to define the proportion of the shape.
Sound data plotted in Rhino.
With the revolving profile we used a parametric definition with grasshopper and paneling tools to develop the unique modules. Originally the light fixture was composed of 256 modules, 16 unique rows.
(FABRICATION/DESIGN)
First prototype of the BLIME with 256 modules, made with a laser cutter out of Bristol card-stock and paper brads as hardware.
At this stage we were using unique edged tags on the modules in order to identify them for assembling purposes. Daunting task!! We needed to come up with an easier solution so other people could assemble it as well. After prototyping we ended up reducing the number of unique modules and created clock-like visual representation to identify the module’s respective row. 12 rows - 12 hours
(BIG WINDOW FOR IMPROVEMENT HERE: We hope to have more people assembling the lamp to know if this is confusing or not)
Prototype of the module, visual clock identifier
Prototype of the lamp after the redesign of the module. Material: Buckram
Buckram is a great material. It has fabric properties but still very structural.
Prototype of the lamp after the redesign of the module. Material: Mylar
Mylar wasn’t our favorite. It is not very environmental friendly and lacked the structured that we were looking for.
Prototype of the lamp after the redesign of the module. Material: Bamboo
Bamboo: The big idea has always been to use wood for the modules. At this stage we were in love with bamboo, but it wasn’t the right choice as it kept braking.
The final step was to resolve the connections and most importantly, how the end and start rows were going to be finished, primarily the way the light fixture (bulb ) was going to be attached.
Connection method between the start row and the “ring” that holds the light cord.
(RESULTS)
Finally we discovered a Mohawk 100% recycled vellum that gave us the structured we were looking for and its environmental properties are phenomenal. For color options, we are working with Canford 4 ply card-stock, and finally we found this awesome wood veneer with a 3m glue backing that allow us to mount the Canford color paper to give color to the inside. (all these photos are shown in the first post)
Thanks for reading all this, it is my honest intention to look for feedback and not a pitch sell.
The process looks really nice and the form is unique. I’ve seen this pp up on my Google Reader quite a bit, so cool to finally see a bit of the process.
However, I would have loved if all the pieces were the same. Kind of what Holger Strom did in th 70’s http://www.iqlight.com/
Or if some how they pieces all locked together, removing the need for brads.
My name is Alvaro, Mauricio’s friend and designer of Blime… Thanks a lot for this thread, is awesome to read opinions about Blime
Simon: David Turnbridge is our great inspiration. We LOVE his lamps !
Sain: We think that the great benefit about parametric design and the easy access to digital tools that we have now is the ability to make highly articulated forms which before where almost impossible for the regular designer to make or even prototype.
The connections are something we can’t wait to test. We are looking forward for feedback from our users in order to know if the module should be redesigned to connect to its neighbor without hardware.
