Thermometer Lamp

The final project was to design a thermometer. I wanted to combine two variables, temperature and light.

I wanted to create a thermometer lamp, in which the temperature controlled the dimness and brightness of the light. How would this lamp work? Would the thermometer read the temperature of the room or someone's touch? If the thermometer read the temperature of someone's hand, how long would the lamp stay bright? I decided that the lamp would read the temperature of the room instead because I didn't want the lamp to act like a strobe light, which could really be annoying for the user.

The second thing I considered was the power resources, natural light and artificial light. Since there is no switch I wanted the lamp to be efficient. At night, the lamp should turn on and during the day, the lamp should turn off. Then I tried to translate interaction with temperature. When the room is cold, I wanted the lamp to emit brighter light, and during the day when it is warmer, the lamp should turn off.

I wanted the light to look ephemeral and alive. I chose to roll a sheet of vellum in Plexiglas. This was a challenge, since the Plexiglas tube was 4 feet tall. Also, I had to reconstruct a base, so I purchased a regular stainless steel bowl and drilled a hole to hide the circuit board and temperature sensor. The hole had to be precisely drilled in to fit a dowel to balance the lamp, but it also had to be invisible also.