Artist Background – Page 2 – The Lumenique BLOG

Art and Design Creation Enabled by Technology

Art vs. Design

Art is not media bound. It matters not whether a creation comes from spray cans, found objects, sculpted from clay, chipped out of marble, or painted with secret formula pigments. Art is the transformation of a thought or individual vision, expressed in forms to be experienced by others. Some art is intentionally fleeting, to be experienced in the moment that is lost to time. Other forms are permanent, to transcend the ages. Some art is heavily contextual, some dated, and some transcendent, changing in meaning and perceived value over time. It is all art. It is all creative expression.

Every stage of human artistic development has been boosted by the simultaneous development of enabling technology. In some cases, the artist themselves were the innovators, in others, artists are the benefactors of technology that emerged for other purposes. Early painters utilized paints of their own creation, where modern artists utilize a plethora of manufactured medium with which to express themselves. The art is not diminished, and the ability to create is enhanced by this transformation. Early sculptors chipped away at marble they sourced from quarries engaged in building architecture, or shaped clay taken from river beds or headed to brick factories, or cast bronze from the same processes and materials used for architectural metalwork. Today, sculpting comes in every imaginable form, using materials and technologies from the past, the present, and in the case of some, the near future. The introduction of the computer has opened doors into new realm of art – including digital works that exist only as data and projected pixels, art headed to any number of printing processes, and now three dimensional art directly from data using 3D printers.

There is differentiation between art and design. Design – whether it be Graphic or Industrial – is creative and artistic, but has a purpose, a determined value to be delivered. In this, Design seeks to first identify the need of the viewer (read “customer”) community, then deploy an end product to satisfy the intended number of viewers in a way that produces a commercial sales result. In this, the Viewer is the priority in which the Designer intends to serve. The Designer focuses every effort on the attempt to produce a clear understanding of the product created, in order to produce the most universal acceptance by the target audience (read “Customer”.)

3D Printing at Lumenique

Additive manufacturing – AKA 3D Printing – comes in several forms that produce various degrees of detail and part integrity. For most of us, the go-to process is FDM, which generates strong plastic parts at a reasonable cost, using a wide range of polymers to suit many needs.

An early part created using FDM Printing, with minimal post-print processing or smoothing.

FDM – Fused Deposition Modeling, also known and MLE (Material Layer Extrusion) – is a process in which a filament of plastic is heated and extruded, tracing the part and its interior, layer by layer. This is the most common process for making strong end-use parts, made from a wide range of materials. FDM printing is also very cost effective, using affordable equipment. Can produce crude optical diffusers, but unsuited to optical forms.

For art produced by the author at Lumenique, we employ a Stratasys F370 Professional grade high performance FDM 3D printer that can print a wide range of plastics. The F370 is a highly reliable printer, that can generate parts that take many days to produce, without failures or quality issues. There are many lower cost machines on the market, but they are not capable of reliably printing large, high quality parts runs without failing. We regularly print jobs that take more than 60 hours, that consume 75 cubic inches of material. We invest in the equipment needed to support this. Our previous Stratasys printer generated over 900 print jobs, with just 2 print failures in the 9 years we had it in operation.

The Stratasys F370 Printer is an industry leading, high reliability, commercial/industrial grade machine with 4 material bays and a heated build environment.

Return to Passion

Lumenique was created in 1986 as part of my Lighting Design Consulting practice in Las Vegas. Originally, it was intended to be a design studio, where I could create unique items for customers, including art galleries. I even had dreams of it being a showroom of custom lighting creations. The name itself was a creation of mine, and reflects the intent fully:

Lumen (Light) + Unique (of special character) = Lumenique

Over the years, as I got busy with life, and from a lack of focus (and abundance of youth), I let this evolve into a wide range of activities and offerings, including artwork, performance components for BMWs, and consulting services from product development to UV curing. Lumenique was first put on the internet with a rudimentary web site in 1995, primarily for sharing information, and at times collected dust as I focused elsewhere. Over the 35 year journey, the origins of Lumenique were muddied by active career life that distracted me from where I intended it to go.

That ends now.

New Focus

On November 1, 2020, Lumenique has returned to its origins, and my sole focus going forward. I will be creating and offering artistic portable lighting products of unique artistic quality, inspired by architecture and machines.

New Web Site

The Lumenique web site has already been rebuilt to reflect this new direction.

The new site will evolve as products are added, and we finish the storefront components. In the meantime, I have created an archive gallery with historic designs, and a ready reference guide to the 52 in 52 project, so a visit now will provide an insight into where I started.

The String of Light

The lighting industry is a faceted and muti-layered universe. However, the bond that holds it all together is that lighting exists only to serve human kind. To the consternation of technologists and engineers behind the SSL revolution, humans (other than those in the are in the business of engineering and technology) are not particularly concerned with metrics, formulas, or objective measurement. Humans are emotional animals, that respond to light and shadow, who feel before they see, and absorb what they see as real, even when it isn’t. To this end, artistry in light remains a strong factor in the human condition, even when those experiencing it are unable to express its influence, or even acknowledge its impact. This underlying reality is what causes so many metrics addicts to go mad, as they attempt to quantify and control a market that is in fact, uncontrollable. The illusion of control is the fallacious reality we live in as humans. We cannot express our needs for an emotionally, soul energizing, comfortable or pleasing existence in metric terms. Continue reading “The String of Light”

On a Personal Note

20161110_123252 — My trusted and most valued tool – a resto-modded 1967 South Bend tool room lathe with all the fixings

My joy in life is in making things. In this, there is rarely a day that passes where I am not building something or tinkering a gadget together. Yesterday it was drill fixture to aid a co-worker in drilling 30 brackets in less than a half hour, while protecting fingers from the part jumping around. It was 20 minutes a work and a few scraps of metal, job done – smile on face. Otherwise, it’s a light fixture for the conference table, a test rig for a cure light, a finger brace for a kids broken finger, an adapter to convert an old fluorescent task light to a UV cure light/500Fc detail work light combination.

My First LED Task Light Sculpture – Vintage 2005

This is my very first functional LED task light, completed at the end of 2005. Construction is welded steel. Originally, the main components of this fixture (2004) were designed for a 12V/20W Halogen bi-pin lamp that created an overheating of the lighting head and poor light output. This was changed to (12) 1/2W Nichia HB LEDs (2800k) mounted to PC board with through hole thermal connection to the heat sink, as an experiment and proof of concept for the application of LEDs to provide greater light output for the same or less energy. Light on the task surface was either 70FC or 150FC, with a very wide distribution, as there is no secondary optical control. An aluminum heat sink inside the lighting head maintains reasonable operating conditions for the LEDs (under 60C TJ), while remaining cool to the touch. The horizontal arm ratchets up and down, the red arches are fiberglass springs that tension the ratchet. The parallel link on the head and arm keep the head level when it is adjusted up and down.