Lampada ad arco

Art or Science?

Recently the (CERN) Large Hadron Collider experiment, near Geneva, published results of an experiment where lead (Pb) atoms were smashed together at such high energies that they simulated conditions in the early universe. How early? Less than one second after the universe (as we know it) began. The so called "Big Bang".

The subsequent image produced by the enormous ALICE detector was stunning. It reminded me somehow of Giacomo Balla's wonderful futurist painting: Lampada ad Arco (1911). This inspired me to combine the image produced at CERN with my study for a ceiling lamp called Octacontagon.

Octacontagon's Big Bang

We Will Kill the Moonlight!

Balla's painting can be seen below. The date shown on the top left corner (1909) refers to the date of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's declaration Uccidiamo il chiaro di luna! which inspired this painting.

Giacomo Balla, Lampada Ad Arco (1911)

Marinetti published Uccidiamo il chiaro di luna! as a declaration of war against 'old Europe' who, at the time, were critical of the Futurist movement.

Octacontagon (reprise)

I spotted this ceiling lamp inside a men's barber shop in Lisbon's old city center last weekend. This is probably the image that was floating in my subconscious as I developed my Octacontagon-shaped ceiling light design (as shown in in an earlier post).

It is the 'Taraxacum '88' chandelier by Achille Castiglioni.

Taraxacum '88 is composed out of a single basic element, a polished aluminum equilateral triangle fitted with either 3, 6, or 10 electrical sockets. A number of these are hinged together to form an icosahedron, the Platonic form closest to a sphere. The sockets are filled with transparent 40 watt Globolux light bulbs, 60 for the smallest version, 200 for the largest version.

Castiglioni said of Taraxacum '88: "It is a bit of a blow to energy-saving but a big chandelier is meant for community areas, lobbies and and rooms that need a lot of light for special occasions and so it also needs to be decorative."

Octacontagon

The old town center of Bologna, with her narrow winding streets, city gates and overhanging porticos, at times feels tight and almost suffocating. Some locals say that the city pulls you in with its arms, like a mother gathering together her children. After 7:30, the shops close and draw down their graffiti-covered shutters. Walking the streets at this time you are, at the same time, enclosed by the city's streets but cut-off from its inner beauty. The real beauty of this city lies in its interiors and closed court yards. This is the beauty that is reserved for the privileged, or those who have well-positioned apartments (not me unfortunately).

On one such evening I peered into an open courtyard entrance and glimpsed this shape hanging (as a light fixture) from the Gothic lines of the ceiling.

As a large light fixture it didn't look out of place against the curved Gothic ceiling lines. Indeed the early cubists in Bohemia were heavily influenced by the geometric vaulted ceilings of the late Gothic period.

After staring at this Gothic entrance for a while, I decided to memorize the shapes and render them when I got home. After playing with the geometry it occurred to me to transform each of the protruding square pyramids into light bulbs (as shown below...)

It was in interesting exercise, but the results are not very original I'm afraid. I'm sure I have seen something similar at a design studio in Milan a few years back.