LookingOutwards-03

In collaboration, multiple designers, including Arturo Tedeschi, Michael Pryor, Pavlina Vardoulaki, and Matteo Silverio, designed a suspension lamp called HorisON. Inspiration for this lamp draws on the contrast between high-tech and traditional handcrafting. These designers speculate that future design will not depend on the constant technological improvement of products and their production, but rather on an integration of the high-tech with humanistic characteristics, such as uniqueness in imperfection. The lamp is made up of two main parts a 3D printed, parametric form that diffuses LEDs inside and a handcraft shell, made in Murano in Italy. During the day, when the lamp is off the shell hides the inner coils and becomes the centerpiece of the lamp. When one, the lamp’s 3D printed core becomes the centerpiece. By emphasizing the combination of human and high-tech, I believe these designers are bridging a very quickly growing gap of disinterest and devaluing of items brought by mass production. Both the handcrafted and paramedic design are objects deserving of appreciation and awe but each is perceived differently. The handcraft part tells a story of craftsmanship and offers people the opportunity to appreciate the skill of the artist while the parametric design offers interest as an unusual item that represents the modern.