For a while now I've been lucky to get 7 hours of sleep in a 4-day school week. Definitely been working harder than last year... but I'm not as stressed out, somehow. If I had to guess as to why, I'd say it's because I'm really happy with my professor, and though he's an extremely intimidating individual, I think we finally have a clear and mutual respect for each other. Also, now that I'm 21 I can go out for a drink or two with my friends and colleagues, shoot the shit, and yap for hours and hours about school because that's just about all we can do.
Anyways, for those of you I am ever-neglecting to update, my lamp project has evolved since the summer. We now have a "pedestal" to go with the lamp, which sounds like a strange accompaniment to a desk lamp, but has become quite an interesting problem. We have fairly free-reign over what the purpose of the pedestal is (as long as their IS a purpose).
So this is what it looks like after working all night in the CAD lab. These were rendered in a pretty sub-par program but they pop out fast so I can render changing concepts as I go.
The top of the lamp rotates, and the lamp is only lit when the edges are aligned. Tiny magnets offer a little feedback as well. When the lamp is sitting in its tiny index in the pedestal's table, the form is continued down to the base. This way, the user is encouraged to turn on the lamp by "normalizing" its shape, and hence its purpose: to be a light.
So now is the scary part-- where we have to build it. I'm looking for an aluminum sculptor/welder, or a commercial/industrial specialist who isn't afraid to tackle something of such small scale. The top diffuser will be SLA'd or FDM'd, depending on the properties of samples I have yet to acquire.
And for those of you that could care less about ID and weren't impressed by the pictures, this is a teaser to a painting I've been working on in my little spare time for the sketchgroup:
