Friday 6 May 2011

Table Lamp + Inspiration = Soundtrack

Marc and Lyall have asked me to repost here about my inappropriate use of their wonderful table lamp. Yes, I confess, it became a soundtrack.
(you can also read my post here)

Recently two of my troublingly diverse interests conspired to create a soundtrack for the production Door which will play at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival this year.

This is how it came about....

Earlier this year, I was wandering around Cape Town's Cape Design Indaba, after running a workshop. I found myself drawn to a project display which attracted me due to its 'work in progress' nature. I love prototypes, they smell of pure idea and this one positively reeked :)

Run by two young industrial design graduates who call themselves ThingKing, their stand offered a kit table lamp fabricated as simply as possible - a metal flat bar, elegantly bent and cut. A bulb socket, light bulb and piece of A4 paper completed the construction. On sale for a donation (to a worthy charity) and on display as a stimulus to conversation about efficient design, I couldn't resist (especially the conversation) and I took one home to assemble for use on my work bench.

Here it is:

And as a lamp it's been very useful. But little did I know that this useful object would become the catalyst for a sound track.

Tuesday 3 May 2011

Bracket attached to a plank

The Bracket is made from punched 2mm mild steel sheet. The hole was threaded and a large bolt inserted to enable fastening. The Bracket comes without the bulb and fitting pictured. There are 3 different finishes: raw finish, zinc plated with clear passivation and zinc plated with yellow passivation.