In the fledgling history of faux fire, Maarten de Ceulaer’s Nomad Light Fire deserves a place among 3rings mainstays like the Twist Together Lamp and Wonsik Chae’s Lighting Bag. The former brought colorful, modular, and playful lighting to the masses, while the latter was a pronounced riff on everything from the U.K.’s national beverage to the mad scientist aesthetic of B-movies like Frankenstein. All three products share a common conceptual core–they each explore new ways to make light sources dynamic and portable while playing with the elemental notion of fire.

Nomad Light Fire. Designed by Maarten de Ceulaer.

De Ceulaer’s Nomad Light Fire is a form of modular lighting that’s constituted of any number of portable “lighting sticks.” As with Twist Together, the individual elements can be conjoined to a central (plugged-in) element that–very like the luminescent crystals of Superman’s hidden icy enclave–transfers energy from one stick to the next.

The result of this infectious electricity is that several lights seem to draw power from one. Just as with fire, one spark from Nomad Light Fire easily morphs into a veritable conflagration of illumination. But the comparison with fire ends there since Nomad Light Fire obviates the danger element. Ultimately, De Ceulaer’s inventive glow sticks make for a humorous substitution for the elemental camp fire. And through some magic or sleight of hand unspecified by De Ceulaer, Nomad’s individual elements can “borrow” power from a central source, then be moved elsewhere yet still retain the appealing glow. This nifty trick renders Nomad akin to so many branches become light-shedding torches, but the designer provides no behind-the-scenes information vis a vis the particular mechanics that make this possible.

I’m guessing batteries and LEDs are involved, but until De Ceulaer enlightens us, we’ll just have to settle for this explanation of Nomad’s primordial utility: “just like the cavemen discovered that, when a tree was hit by lightning, they could take out one of these burning branches, you will discover that you can take elements of light from this fire as well… this lighting object would be ideal to be used for garden parties, in restaurants or cafés, terazzas, big events or parties, hotel lounges, and even private spaces.”

via MoCo Loco

pictures by Fedra Dekeyser