This year I had a very special birthday. It entailed a day touring the ground of Artemide, a lighting company. Founded in 1959 by Mundi, they pride themselves on their ingenuity and attention to detail. They focus on the relationship between man and light. How does man interact with light, and how does light affect man’s surroundings and emotions? Their products/projects attend to these ideas.
They produced “The Human Light” (1980-1990) which was an idea that focussed on how light can change the perception of a place. After this they created touch sensitive lighting that changed colors (1900-2000) which gave the user more control and creativity in their lighting process using Metamorforsi Technology. My favorite project was a group of lights that all interacted with each other. They were all bulbs of glass with a single light emitted through one point. As a user touches one in a sliding motion, it dims this light, but all the others as well. In this way one can connect with all of the lights through any point, not simply through a switch on the wall. This is useful, yet also an interesting study in the way that appliances can relate and interact with eachother.
We then discussed the change of their production methods as the LED light was produced. This was a time with innovation met tradition, as LED technology was combined with traditional Italian design such as their glass factory in Venice. With this we were shown a list of patents of that Artemide had acquired. Their passion was transferred not only through design but into the sciences. The Alphabet of Light, Ameluna, LoT, LoT Reflectors were some patents, to name just a few.
We viewed this passion through their creations and facility. We were allowed to walk through their factory. Here, dawned in our orange reflective vests, we saw metal pellets being spat from the mouths of machines. We saw CNC routers cutting sheets of metal as a man shook out the results. Piles of metal lined the shelves that reached the factory ceiling. Pieces of lamps hung from a rack and moved throughout the building.
We then removed the vests and traveled to the laboratory. Here we learned just how much attention Artemide paid to details. They had a machine that tested the intensity and light distribution of their products with a rotating mirror and sensors. Another room tested the longevity of the lights. The products were put in devices that heated them and acted as x-many years of outdoor life. Most interesting, there was a machine (looked as a simple sphere on a pole) that received the radiation as a human body would. In this way they can attend to all of the Italian regulations.
Artemide was a wonderful example of collaboration. Designers + scientists + engineers all coming together to produce products that spread light + innovation.
