What happens when the lights go out in Spain?

Check this out. The Tau Advanced Group rolled out the ultimate showstopper at Cevisama last February. Cevisama is the annual showcase for the Spanish tile, surfaces and bath industries. 79,000 people were in Valencia two months ago and all 79,000 of them stopped in their tracks when Tau asked and then answered the question, "What happens when the lights go out in Spain?' Watch this.

This is an ordinary looking floor, right?

Well, watch what happens after dark.

The process Tau pioneered is called Afterdark and it's a resilient surface treatment that absorbs light in direct proportion to a light source's intensity. After it's exposed to intense light, it glows brightly. After exposure to less intense light, it glows less intensely.

Afterdark isn't a gimmick but a genuine break through in the way cities can think about light. Afterdark is intended for use in public spaces and as sheathing for buildings. In a subway station, emergency lighting that requires no power to operate could be a life saver. Where I think it will prove its worth is when it's used on the exterior of a building. Imagine the energy savings if a building's exterior architecture or its signs required no electricity to light up a skyline.

In a situation like a nightclub, Afterdark's responsive luminescence could make for interactive lighting installations. Check this out.

Here's an example of Afterdark in mid glow. If you take a penlight, you can write on the tile with the beam and the tile will absorb the light energy from the penlight and glow back more brightly.

Somebody wrote "Tau" with a penlight here and the name will glow like this for hours. I can see a wall covered in Tau's Afterdark in a restaurant or a club and every night it could feature a drawing. Or patrons armed with penlights could cover the wall with what ever moved them. What a great idea!

Glow in the dark stuff has been around for ages, but I don't think anyone's ever thought of a real, practical application for it. At least not one like this. So what happens after the lights go out in Spain? Coolness happens, that's what.

Check out the rest of Tau Cerámica's offerings on their website.

An appropriate light fixture for an Octopus's Garden

The great Daniel Ogassian posted a link to these on Twitter the other day and I think they're entirely too cool. They're by artist Adam Wallacavage and they make me want to break into song.

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade

He'd let us in, knows where we've been

In his octopus's garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see

An octopus's garden with me

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade

We would be warm below the storm

In our little hideaway beneath the waves

Resting our head on the sea bed

In an octopus's garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around

Because we know we can't be found

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about

The coral that lies beneath the waves

(Lies beneath the ocean waves)

Oh what joy for every girl and boy

Knowing they're happy and they're safe

(Happy and they're safe)

We would be so happy you and me

No one there to tell us what to do

I'd like to be under the sea

In an octopus's garden with you

In an octopus's garden with you

In an octopus's garden with you

An Octopus's Garden was written by Ringo Starr in 1968 and here we are, 42 years later, and somebody finally found a way to light that Octopus's Garden.

From the Beatles Bible:

Ringo Starr's second composition for The Beatles was written in Sardinia. On 22 August 1968 he temporarily walked out of sessions for the White Album after becoming disenchanted with the increasing tensions within the group. He took his family abroad for a boating holiday, returning to Abbey Road on 5 September.

"I wrote Octopus's Garden in Sardinia. Peter Sellers had lent us his yacht and we went out for the day... I stayed out on deck with [the captain] and we talked about octopuses. He told me that they hang out in their caves and they go around the seabed finding shiny stones and tin cans and bottles to put in front of their cave like a garden. I thought this was fabulous, because at the time I just wanted to be under the sea too. A couple of tokes later with the guitar - and we had Octopus's Garden!"

ITRE's classic JJ in a Limited Edition and at a special price

Iconic lighting purveyor ITRE has issued a limited edition of the original, articulated desk lamp; the JJ. The JJ has been in continuous production since 1937 and now it's available in three new colors.

Deep purple, electric blue and brilliant green JJs will only be available for a short time and they're available on Y Lighting right now for $209. That's down from the usual $265.50.

Nothing says spring quite like a purple, articulated desk lamp. Or so I say anyway.

Here's the light output for Water Pressure Chandeliers

I just heard from Water Pressure Lighting and they want me to let you know (Nancie Mills-Pipgras in particular) that their LED bulbs go to 30W equiv, for a total 150W, plus they're dimmable!

I like chandeliers. There I said it.

Confession time. Despite all of my barking about clear spaces making for clear thoughts I have a weakness for chandeliers. Not just any chandelier, but chandeliers never the less. I blame James Moder.

James Moder made the first deconstructed crystal chandelier I'd ever seen and it changed everything. Until the day I stumbled upon one, I thought chandeliers were the sole province of elderly women and fussy designers. Moder's Broadway series had something to say and it very nearly made fun of the medium it was constructed from. Brilliant, really.

Chandeliers have been around since Medieval times and they've been adorned with crystals since the 18th century. They are a world unto themselves, with their own vocabulary, their own manufacturers and sometimes, their own dedicated distribution networks. In the world of lighting, they hold themselves apart.

They should. I swear they're an art form.

Dwellings, Ltd has a new collection of five chandeliers called Water Pressure. Each chandelier takes its inspiration from an example of falling water and then tells a very clear story. There's nothing subtle or implied, these pieces have a point of view. They are also hand made from jewelry-quality Swarovski Crystals.

Crashing Wave is just that, complete with a shoreline.

Lawn Sprinkler is a summer day in bare feet.

Lather Up is a soaking shower.

NYC Sewer Grate is rain falling through a grate as observed by mice.

Irrigation is a farmer's field.

That Crashing Wave is a wonder. And if that weren't enough, Dwellings, Ltd is offering free shipping to the US and Canada through April 15th.

What do we think? Am I alone in my appreciation for the not-so-humble chandelier? Chandelier fans, how does the Water Pressure series stack up?

Springtime lighting

Thursday's New York Times ran a photo and a description of this ceiling light.

It's the Infiore Pendant by Estiluz, and I think it's pretty neat. It might be a symptom of frostbite though. Is any body else about done with winter? Geez!

Estiluz makes some really interesting, modern lighting. Estiluz is one of two lighting brands produced by Grupo Estiluz in Catalunya. That's a Province in Spain, for anyone who missed that day. Their manufacturing facilities are in the small town of Sant Joan de Abedesses, which is about 50 miles (80 km) north of Barcelona.

Estiluz is their modern brand and Blauet is their contemporary line.

Here's some more of their modern designs.

I've specifically not shown any of their contemporary stuff from Blauet, not that there's a thing wrong with it. I have an idea though.

Here's Blauet's website.

Here's Estiluz's website.

Now, what's the difference between modern lighting and contemporary lighting? Leave an answer of fewer than 500 words and the best answer wins a new range hood. Hah! No, there's no prize. I don't care if I never see another one frankly. Instead the winner will get something infinitely better than a thing. The winner will get the satisfaction of being smart.

What is art? Part two

So last night I posed a rhetorical question: what is art?

I was thinking about that question because one of my readers and Twitter pals Christine sent me a link to something that made her roll her eyes. She and I tend to roll our eyes at the same things, so she wanted to share this particular eye roll. Before I get too far ahead of myself, Christine Tweets as @pillowthrowdeco. She's also the pillow maker to the stars and you can see her wares at her Etsy store. If you're north of the 49th parallel, she has a store on iCraft.


Anyhow, she sent me a link to a post written by Casa Sugar a couple of years ago. Now Casa Sugar's a great website and she deserves a lot of credit for spurring the conversation she did in her comments when she ran a poll asking what people thought of this lamp by Philippe Starck.

That was one of four Gun Lamps Philippe Starck designed for Flos a couple of years ago. The comments on Casa Sugar were pretty uniformly horrified by the lamp. And based on their comments, they were missing the point Starck was making with that series. A lot of people thought the lamp was glorifying gun violence. They were also laboring under the mistaken idea that this was some readily-available thing.


I suppose it helps to know who Philippe Starck is. 

Philippe Starck is the 61-year-old enfant terrible of the design world. If René Magritte and Salvador Dalí ever got together and made housewares, the result would be something akin to what comes out of the mind of Philippe Starck.


Philippe Starck is an artist in every sense of the word. I define art as a motive as much as an execution. And in my mind, art is the act of an artist observing and interpreting the world he sees. As he interprets the world, he invites me to see the world as he sees it and at the same time, he challenges me to see it for myself. Ponderous definition I know, but it's taken me years to come up with that and that's as streamlined as I can get it.


Anyhow, Starck turns his artist's eye on the world around him and the result is a tumult of shocking, offensive and as often as not, pretty objects.


Here's a handful of them.

He's also an interior designer and an architect. This is a hotel lobby in Argentina.

Amazing. Now back to the gun lamps that offended so many people on Casa Sugar.


Here's the lamp again.

It's plated in 18 karat gold and on the base, it reads Happiness is a Hot Gun.


The shade is black and there are gold crosses on the inside of the shade.

I smell symbolism at work.


Sure enough, in Starck's own words:

Black as colour of death
Crosses of our dead ones
Gold colour as ambition
War weapons; domestic weapons, bedside, table, living room weapons.
Aux Armes everywhere, as an ending...
Happiness is a hot gun...
My intent was to create objects to remind us that our state of well-being is the result of somebody else dying.

Philippe Starck

Hmmm, that doesn't sound like the glorification of gun violence to me.

These Gun Lamps are intended to be art pieces, clearly. And they're priced as such. Despite the misinterpretations, I can't help but think Monsieur Starck got the reaction he was after precisely.

I think they're hilarious. Brilliant even. I can't see me buying them for me, but I'm sort of glad they're out there.

So. Do these lamps work as art? As illumination? As decor? Or do they fail on all counts?

ITRE lighting reminds me that it will be spring. Eventually.

Frost-damaged coconut palm in St. Pete. Photo by Tranquilometro.

This has been a cold winter. I know, I know, there's something like eight feet of snow piled up in Philadelphia right now and that can't be any fun. If it's any consolation, it's been absurdly cold down here too. It's ordinarily at least 20 degrees warmer than it's been averaging since January. We've had freezes for the first time that I can remember in nearly 10 years of living in St. Pete. Everything looks dead. The dying palms trees are scratching against the breezes and everything's brown. It's unusual to say the least. Ordinarily, it warms up after a day or two when we get a cold snap. Not so this year. I don't think it's hit 70 degrees in more than two months.

Today's weather.

After two months of being cooped up indoors and wearing sweaters (nothing's heated here) I am more than ready for next month and the return of warmer weather. I hope at any rate. I'm looking forward to lingering outside when it's well after dark and just being. One of my great joys is to have friends over and to sit around the table on my patio and talk.

If I'm feeling punchy after this, I cannot imagine how folks in more norther climes are feeling about now. Well, it's never too early to start thinking about spring. In order to jump start that, the folks at ITRE have three new outdoor lighting options to consider as you mull over the idea of lingering on your own patios.

First up is the Sit-Up, designed my Kostas Sytrariotis. It's a light that's also a seat. An individual Sit-Up looks like this.

Where they get cool is that groups of Sit-Ups can be combined to make a circle,

Or something free form.

Each unit is 43-3/4" x 21-3/4" and they are 17" tall. They use fluorescent light and are inherently energy efficient. Glowing seating would be a hit, that's for sure.

Next up is the Kioto, designed by Andrea Crovato for ITRE.

The Kioto is made from grey aluminum with a white glass diffuser, it uses either fluorescent or LED bulbs and is wet-rated. Throw in the fact that it can be ceiling or wall mounted and you have one flexible fixture.

But that's nothing when it comes to flexibility. Here's my favorite.

It's the Great JJ Outdoor. This fully-functioning, articulated architect's lamp was designed by Centro Stile for ITRE. It can stretch to nearly 14 feet high and the effect can't be anything but surreal. Imagine a lawn with five of these or so arranged randomly. Wow. The Great JJ Outdoor is available in matte black, matter grey and matte white. Stunning. Don't you think?

ITRE was founded in Murano in 1975 and has been producing well-designed and well made lighting ever since. How could it be anything but? Around here, we translate Fatto in Italia as "Good" in English.

Check out the rest of ITRE's offerings on their website, they do some really great stuff.