Home / Other Design Work / Paper Lampshade (IDEA 292)
Paper Lampshade (IDEA 292)
A lampshade for an unalterable base constructed out of one type of paper.
IDEA 292, Interdisciplinary Project Lab
This project required me to design and construct a lampshade out of one type of paper and one glue only. The lamp had to mount to an unalterable backing board with a lightbulb and three hooks.
I was thinking a lot about human interaction with light sources, and how we intentionally and unintentionally now interact with light at unprecedented levels. Sources of light have become a catalyst of immeasurable change to our daily lives, with largely unknown side effects.
Therefore, I wanted this lampshade to be interactive. I wanted a two-way relationship with viewers and the lampshade reacting to one another. The lampshade is meant to be striking, but confusing in its construction. It is an abstract curtain that a viewer should physically poke.
On touching the lampshade, the shadows drastically change. This is emblamatic of the unexpected consequences of interaction with mysterious light sources we all experience daily.
Gallery
The First Prototype
My initial execution was intended to create a lampshade that fluttered and flowed due to users walking by. This lampshade achieved that through the use of soft, laser-cut paper strips laid out on a grid. Unfortunately, the lamp could only use one type of paper, and this paper was not nearly stiff enough for the grid to be self-supporting. That made this lampshade require MDF supports which were not allowed for the final, and the whole thing looked a little too messy for my taste.