io9: lights

Flowers After the Nanotech Revolution

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:30:00 PST

These flowers dangle delicately, but you cannot pluck them. They're made of precision-etched metal, and contain an electrified light source.

Created by Studio Tord Boontje, these strange chandeliers are part of a collection called "Future Flora." The designer, Boontje, said that he created them to suggest a strange new species - a hybrid of flower and light.

I'm waiting for the model that can fold itself into a throwing star and act as a guard flower for my Triffid seed collection.

via Notcot

Mad Scientist Lights for Your Home Lab

Kevin Kelly — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:30:19 PST

Ever wanted to give your inner sanctum sanctorum some flickering evil genius style lighting? That mad scientist's lair you've been silently constructing in the basement can now have ready-made lighting, complete with brass fixtures, tube lights, and skull knobs. Gothic Glow has made it much easier to have steampunk-style filaments burning in your house, so instead of spending that time working on the lights, you can devote it to your doomsday device, or your mechanical suit of self-aware armor.

100 Trippy Balloons Do the Atom Dance

LISA KATAYAMA — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:30:55 PST

A designer collective called Electric MoOns has created what they called "balloon ballet"—an installation of 100 balloons bunched together in a LED-lit grid in a pitch dark room. It is, its creators believe, the world's largest 3D balloon display, and when it's not floating eerily in its multi-ovular matrix, it does a kind of flash dance—dubbed "Atom"—that goes along with some trippy music and a light show.

Image by Electric MoOn

Electric MoOns via DesignBoom