DesignBlok in Prague: assemble a firefly lamp in total darkness

At the Trade Fair Palace (Veletržní palác) in Prague, the “Light Workshop” is under way as part of the 28th DesignBlok design and fashion festival: in total darkness, visitors build firefly lamps with the help of blind assistants. The festival, whose main theme this year is “Light”, runs until Sunday, 11 October.

The project is by the atelier dvoutakt. It is closely tied to the Světluška (Firefly) fund at Czech Radio, which has long supported blind and visually impaired people: the proceeds from lamp sales will go to it.

Assembling by touch with blind guides

A box with the parts for a lamp can be bought on site; opening it and assembling the lamp takes place in a dark “cave”, where the way is lit by an installation of 250 “fireflies” that glow at a touch. One of the first visitors, Eliška, admitted she bought a set to give Světluška a hundred-crown donation, but couldn’t resist and started building the lamp herself. In her words, it is unusual to work purely by touch, and it is worth at least looking over the box beforehand.

The lamp consists of three parts. Visitors are helped by Klára, who is blind and commutes between Prague and the Kladno region: if someone gets stuck, she gives verbal tips or guides their hands. Another guest, Luci, came with her son and daughter — the children loved how the lamps light up at a touch, and in the end they built their own.

Thousands of handmade lamps

The workshop was devised by Max Korejs and Roman Mareš, former classmates at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. They made the lamps for the Kaufland chain, which has long worked with the Světluška fund. Preparation took five months, and 2,250 fireflies were made in total: 250 form the installation itself and another 2,000 are meant for visitors. Each USB-powered lamp contains a specially developed kinetic chip: it responds to movement and touch, lights up, glows for half a minute and then fades smoothly.

Everything was done by hand. “We picked up every cable, cast every concrete piece, glued on every chip,” Korejs said. The concrete bases alone weigh about 700 kilograms.

The authors’ project from last year — a greenhouse made of preserving jars — now stands in a community garden in Brno. Next year the duo will probably take a break to bring the greenhouse to a final product for the community gardens Kaufland works with.

Read also: Brno: what to see and where to go

Around Prague, based on reporting by prazsky.denik.cz