Crepuscularis is a lighting project that envisions design as a way of waking the human consciousness towards the self, the senses and the mind. The title of the project, inspired by the emotive quality of the crepuscular rays that occur during the hours around dawn and dusk when the contrasts between light and darkness are most significant, therefore is a metaphorical symbolism of an awakening light.
With a series of lighting designs that interpret and translate subtle Buddhist spiritual philosophy of Existence, Impermanence and Emptiness, the project would explore the human experiences - interaction, sensation and contemplation - with light. Bringing forth the notion of light, while being an entity within human activities, is a phenomenon of nature to begin with, the project attempts to connect the parallel relation between light as entity and phenomenon by rendering the phenomenal qualities of light into designed lamps that not only function as products but works that affect our actions, emotions and thoughts.
The final outcome is a triad of lamps titled Sanctum, Mirage and Eclipse respectively; where together they objectify light phenomena into a sensible and viable conceptual tangibility for the everyday.
Sanctum is a monolithic light structure that metaphorically expresses presence through solidity and materiality. The form of the lamp reveals a resemblance to an altar where the lighting expression mimics how light permeates into architecture, giving the space a spiritual aura.
It is the notion that objects around a person define who he or she, hence, Sanctum is an an altar of objects, which elevates the existence and identity of an individual by bearing his or her intimate objects.
Meant to be a table lamp that function both as an illumination by itself and for the objects it holds, it serves as a reminder to the user of the objects’ presence.
For more information, visit SANCTUM
Mirage, as the name suggest, is a lamp that explores the element of light, time, motion and water, and plays with the optical occurrence created with from light and water.
Referencing the spiritual philosophy of Impermanence, Mirage seeks to awaken one’s sentient state through the synthesis of nature and technology. Harnessing both the fluidity of water and the lustrous light, the floor lamp is not simply a lamp, but an instrument incisively designed to enrich the experience and provoke the consciousness of the simple need for a breather from work through the motion of rippling water
A positive disruption, the therapeutic quality of the water motion is translated and brought into an urban environment and saw an opportunity of being injected into the daily life.
For more information, visit MIRAGE
Eclipse, is an abstract pendant lamp, which is not fabricated but acts as a completion to the triad of lights on a conceptual level.
Taking cue from the phenomenon of solar eclipses, Eclipse is intentionally designed to articulate the juxtaposed relationship between light and darkness. The lamp could cast circular shadows on both the ceiling and the ground due to the chrome reflective ellipse that rises and sinks to create an inverse play of light and shadow.
This elicits the conscious creation of darkness whereby the focus is not on creating light, but creating the shadows. A lamp for contemplation, users could immerse and reflect under the lamp all while witnessing the interplay between light and shadow as the ellipse moves.
For more information, visit ECLIPSE
Demonstration Video
Crepuscularis was exhibited as a graduation project in School of Art, Design & Media of Nanyang Technological University.
