:: description
This is a precooked bread that can be consumed as a lamp.

To use Paneluce, one must plug the bread in the wall and wait 20 minutes with it lit to have the bread fully cooked, tasty and smelling good. At this moment, if one cooks it too much the bread becomes too hard and dry to be eaten. In fact, it becomes so hard that becomes an object with a pleasant warm glow.





It works on the premise that an intervention in its appearance or form, can allow it to be either edible or put to use as a personalized lamp. There is a constant tension between its dual functions; the more it is consumed as bread, the less of a lamp it becomes… If one decides to keep the lamp and doesn't use it often, there is a high possibility of it being prone to fungus, because the heat of the lamp make sure it remains dry.



:: technical details
It is important to make clear that this object is a hypothetical electronic object which main function is to express and communicate conceptual ideas, not necessarily to be placed in a marketplace or become real.

For understanding of the prototyping procedure, read following description:

The bread is made with flour, biological ferment, water, oil, an bulb G80 60Watts, a normal electrical socket and salt. The external white wire is the one used for sound systems. It is cooked in a oven hotter than usual to make it cook much faster outside than inside, providing a nice external crust color and resistance. But it is taken out of the oven before it is completed cooked inside. All internal electrical parts are insulated previously with hard flour batter.

When the bread is plugged, the waste of energy of the bulb, that is converted in heat, finishes the cooking from inside. Because the milky color and the size of the bulb and the design of the bread itself, it does not get too hot to actually burn the bread. That's why the consumer can keep it lit and then just let it overcook, becoming dry and hard. The oil in the ingredients is essential at this moment, avoiding undesirable cracks in the shape.



:: images
There is a short photo album of one of the prototype experiments, with the consumer actually eating the bread and shaping the lamp. But the light was too strong... :-)

Album Paneluce Breakfast

And, for several images of the different prototypes and showing the hands in the dough, visit:

Prototypes

 

Paneluce at an exhibition. Click on the images to see more about thesis projects in exhibitions.