Remember that amazing scene from the 2010 movie Inception, where an entire city folds over on itself, so that skyscrapers hang like stalactites overhead?
If you ever fancied having that scene play out in the comfort of your own home, Netherlands-based designer David Graas may be able to help you. That’s because he has helped make a similarly trippy vision a reality with his jaw-droppingly gorgeous 3D printed hanging skyscraper bulb shades — bearing the perfect name (wait for it!) “Stalaclights.”
“The LED bulb was the starting point,” Graas tells Digital Trends. “The measurements of it, and also the fact that LED does not get hot, [mean that] it’s possible to directly connect a shade on the bulb itself.” The three pieces he’s created in the series — called Stalaclight-1, Stalaclight-2, and Stalaclight-3 — are all odes to Art Deco design, the architectural period responsible for the earliest skyscrapers in New York and Chicago.
“What is so cool about 3D printing is that the printer does not care if the shape is very straightforward or ultra complex,” Graas continues. “So it makes sense to make things that are very intricate, that would be impossible to make in a different technique.”
As to the blurring of natural stalactites and ultra-artificial skyscrapers, he’s also got an explanation. “I’m interested in the theme of nature vs. technology,” he notes. “Or nature vs. culture. Nature vs. art. Natural vs. artificial. Common belief is that these are two different worlds, and that we as humans with all our modern technology have somehow become detached from nature. Another way to look at it is that technology is part of nature. Since men have brought forth technology, it is by definition natural. It is merely a next phase in the evolution.”
Now if that isn’t the most artful explanation you’ve ever heard about why you should buy a lamp, I’ll eat my Digital Trends hat!
You can check out the rest of David Graas’ work, and buy your own Stalaclight, at his website here.
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