Lighting Engine
A bedside table lamp that uses a mercury tilt switch to toggle the light on and off. The form was intended to convey its motion and function while ideally being enjoyable to use and observe in both its on and off states.
premise
My goal was to make a bedside table lamp that would toggle on or off in relation to the form's orientation. I aimed to make the lamp fairly intuitive and fit the needs of a small, bedroom environment. When the lamp is in an upright/standing position the angle of the mercury switch closes the circuit connection, hence, turning on the LED light. When the lamp is in it's off position (resting on its curved edge), the mercury switch position shifts to an open circuit, therefore, causing the LED light to switch off.
In order to turn off the lamp, the user simply needs to push the form from its vertical position to its horizontal position. A firm nudge will knock the weighted form onto its curved edge and toggle the switch off. To turn the lamp back on the user needs only to gently press the end of the flat, upward facing edge. By pressing this edge the base weights will force the lamp to reorient itself to an upright position.
