Isn't there something more real than reality within over-simplifed depictions of our world? Take The Simpsons or South Park, for instance. These decidedly adult cartoons use cardboard cutouts as human likenesses to point out the irony, absurdity, and foolishness of the species. Sure these shows are trafficking in clich©s, but sometimes Homer Simpson or Cartman seem so much more palpable than certain actual people I come in contact with–this, notwithstanding (or because of) their repugnance.

Marcus Tremonto of Treluce Studio engages similar issues with “Are You Positive?”–a light installation made out of his “Pixel Bulbs” that ran the whole month of June at London’s Saatchi Gallery. The exhibition was “an exploration of converting 2-Dimensional imagery into 3-Dimensional objects”; and the Pixel Bulb “is a unique light where the negative image is in fact the focal aspect of the lamp.”

Are You Positive? Designed by Marcus Tremonto of Treluce Studio.

Tremonto’s installation is constituted of two complementary lights, both made of electroluminescent paper. Object 1 is an oversized 2D facsimile of a humble light bulb, the typically curvy outer contours simplified into a profusion of “pixilated” squares; object 2 is a square sheet of the same electroluminescent material with the central portion removed in the self-same shape of object 1. Displayed together, the two lamps provide an intriguing study of contrast and complementarity, the single pixilated bulbs dangling spare before the larger sheet of its origin. The effect recalls that of a sculpture placed alongside the proximal void left in the original marble; or an etching beside its stone. There’s something akin to shadow play going on here, wherein the “real” and the illusory silhouette interact in ways that suggest co-dependence while asserting the opposite.

Additionally, Are You Positive? is playing with the idea of elemental forms, especially in the way it re-appropriates a "behind-the-scenes" or unfinished aspect to create a new aesthetic. Much in the manner of Patricia Urquiola's Digitable or Platform Studio's Fractal Table, Are You Positive? uses the incidental forms of our new technologies to challenge our assumptions and broaden our A & D landscape.

Via DeTnk.