Mathmos
Ever seen a lava lamp? Ever been hypnotised watching one? Mathmos are the original lava lamp people, and they haven't been slacking off about making funky lights since. Check out their continuing mission to make sure futurism has a nice relaxed edge on it.
The lava lamp was the brainchild of Edward Craven Walker, the prominent nudist and all-round fun guy. "If you buy my lamp, you won't need drugs..." he's quoted as saying. Spork isn't so sure Pete Doherty is going to be ditching his filthy drugs shenanigans in favour of an interesting lighting feature any time soon, but they sure are mesmerizing.
Walker sold the American rights to his lamp to Haggerty Enterprises in 1965 and later passed the torch to Mathmos, who are running with it these days.
Those of you with more developed pop culture radar may recognize Mathmos as being a reference to the excellent 60s cult film Barbarella (Mathmos was the vaguely lava-lamp like seething lake of evil slime beneath the city) These days they're focused less on evil seething, and more on effortlessly technological lighting.
Mathmos lights will fill your life with a soft glow in all sorts of soothing colours. My favourite has to be the Airswitch lamps. One lives in my house, and is controlled by a very funky gesture system. Pass your palm over it and it will turn on or off. Control the brightness by raising and lowering your hand. Not only are these lights beautiful, but they're probably more fun to turn on and off than is sensible. Me and my partner found ourselves giggling like loonies just turning the bedside lamp on and off.
There's also the very groovy Aduki lights. These won't exactly light up a room, but they do sit there and cycle through all sorts of lovely shades. It's a talking piece, kind of like an electric iguana.
Or for the full '60s experience you can get yourself an oil-filled projector lamp, put "Hair" on the stereo, and take all your clothes off. Up to you.
Anyway, Mathmos lamps are available over the internet, at their flagship store in London , and from a range of forward-thinking distributors around the world. If you're in the UK , you can get a catalogue by e-mailing them your home address.
Please note: Spork cannot be held responsible for any career-damaging relaxation caused by purchasing and using a Mathmos lamp. I mean, it's not going to be our fault if you spend all weekend monged out in a softly glowing room listening to your Ryuichi Sakamoto album and end up having to phone your boss on Monday morning and say "Er, yeah. It's me knee <cough>" while you debate who has to go out for Nourishment and Rizlas.
Bookmark this page with:
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
Or e-mail it the old-fashioned way
Comments
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: ssi_showthread() in /home/sp0rk2/public_html/Archive/Issue5/welikeit_mathmos.php on line 100