The DNA style lamp not only seems to be popular, it also has elicited a small spat over who designed it first. Michael Silverberg from Metropolis wrote in recently to set the record straight. We're glad he did too, because we already got into trouble a few years ago for blogging another DNA clone, The Atomic Chandelier by David Allen (who seems to have disappeared). (Thanks, Michael!)
Today, when I clicked through to the familiar-looking DNA light, by Buro fur Form, I noticed that the Dutch designer Chris Kabel had already responded to the orginal reluct.com post with a claim that the light was lifted from his own 2002 1totree.
The truth is, Irving Harper created an industrial light about fifty years that both designs pass off as their own. You can see the resemblance in an article that we ran in 2001.
Best, Michael Silverberg, Metropolis
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Just confirming the David Allen Gallery is no longer on Smith St. Not sure if it has moved elsewhere. The store front is now occupied by a children's playspace store.
Wow, all this fuss over a bunch of plastic coated sockets twisted together into an overpriced light fixture...
Yeah, but if it were YOUR overpriced light fixture...
Confused. Where is the double helix?
yes, p(too), then I'd be rich :)
Big or small, it's always important to pin point the origin of every design, after all, a designer's integrity is on the line. People work very hard to come up with ideas for the rest of the world can enjoy.
How would you like it mali if you designed something first and another designer did it later and claimed it was his/hers? I think you clearly understand what the "fuss" is all about now don't you?
http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2006/07/make-your-own-ikea-dna-lamp.html?&tags=lighting
ha!
Another twist: For several years, the New York-based artist Spencer Finch has been making similar lamps as sculptures. The light from each is precisely calibrated to the natural light he experienced at various locations of personal and historical importance. For examples, click on this link:
http://www.spencerfinch.com/view/?group=installations
Then go to work number 9, which was included in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. It's one of many similar works.
Brian
Oh! Then go to work 9, where he uses colored filters to make Texas sunlight at high noon give what he says is the exact light of Paris.
If one knew how to do that -- or could afford to bring an artist in to do the stained glass window -- just think what one could do with color schemes in rooms small enough where the stained glass window was the major light source.
No matter what 'designer' did it first, I don't doubt that somebody who will never be credited (and doesn't even care about the fact that he twisted some sockets together) did it before anybody else.
Guyinsf, no reason to be such a condescending jerk to me.
It's quite likely that several people had the bright idea (pun intended!) at the same time, since those Y-shaped sockets beg to be connected to each other to make something. Case in point: about three years ago, I was taking a three-layer, buttercream-iced cake to a party and had to come up with an idea to transport it, since I had nothing designed for that purpose. Struck by inspiration, I inverted the large bowl of my salad spinner over the plate the cake sat on and taped the edges down with masking tape. Voila! It was so brilliant that I thought I'd send it into "Cook's Illustrated" magazine for their "reader's tips" column ... but before I even had the chance to do so, there it was! Then, leafing through an old "Real Simple" in a doctor's office, I spotted it again... with a picture of the same bowl I have.
Jane, you illustrated the point I was trying to make. Sometimes you have an 'original' idea, and then before you do anything with it you see it somewhere. Other times you have an 'original' idea only to discover that somebody already did it a long time ago. It hardly matters, as long as the cake got safely from A to Z (and now, thanks to you, I'm desperately in need of some cake!)
But it does matter if your livelihood and credibility depends on it. Also the Chris Kabel issue isn't just that the lamps are similar, he'd actually had dealings of some sort with the designer of the newer lamp so it's not like they both just came up with similar designs out of the blue. It's not coincidence in that particular case.
if livelihood and credibility depend on it, then maybe the designer should come up with something original that isn't so easily copied. a little ingenuity adds value. while they are nice lights, it's just an obvious 'design' on the same level as my lego house.
regardless, it still looks nothing like the structure of DNA!