Let there be light switches
From dark living rooms to dark ecology
Ed. Justin McGuirk, co-curator of an excellent new show, ‘Home Futures’, at the Design Museum in London, kindly asked me to write a short piece about the light switch for the accompanying catalogue. Given that analogue switches may disappear, in favour of smart lighting, Justin thought the light switch might be “a metonym for the voice-operated smart home”. Here’s a different edit of the piece I wrote for the catalogue. Thanks to Justin for asking — and edits! — and do go and see the show if you’re in London.
The inventor of the light switch, John Henry Holmes, was a Quaker, member of a doctrine generally united by a fundamental belief in the ability of each person to access “the light within”. The light switch, of course, enables each person to access the light without, and has been doing so, solidly, since 1884.
At least until the emergence of the voice- or presence-activated smart home version of lights, brave solution to an unspecified problem. Unlike contemporary design patterns, Holmes’s switch is a simple design that has lasted for centuries. Still, entering an old house, we brush our fingertips over the wall in the gloom, tracing spatial memories, caressing plaster or brick or wood before your hand brushes against an early plastic, or even Bakelite. The switch itself still…
