Lighting Up Democracy

Help shape rather than just consume – participants in the workshop ‘Enlightening Democracy’ will build a lamp whose shape, code and light they can design themselves.

Within an open framework, they will manufacture the individual parts on site, personalise them and then reflect on how open processes shift the role of the user to that of co-author. The workshop is therefore less of a technical tutorial and more of a living example of democratic production.

Lighting artist and designer Marco Brianza studied computer science and is a lecturer in multimedia design and lighting design (Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera and NABA, Milan). He combines digital culture and aesthetic research to transform spaces into interactive light landscapes based on open-source technologies. Together with his students in Milan, he will develop the individual elements of a modular light object and make them available to workshop participants in Frankfurt.

While traditional products come to consumers packaged, predefined and patented, Marco Brianza's lamp is based on information, i.e. editable 3D files, commercially available electronics and freely available firmware (WLED).

The workshop is aimed at anyone with digital skills. You do not need to bring your own PC/tablet. There is a participation fee of € 20 for the workshop, including material costs.