I spend a lot of time thinking about light and I have a growing level of distain for LEDs. When I was growing up, red LEDs were pretty much all that there were. Light emitting diodes. A small and simple circuit that was a revolutionary break through. Very energy efficient, low voltage, emitting one specific wavelength of light. Used frequently as indicator lights and in hand held electronic games. The breakthrough was the blue LED. It took years, and early on, they were very expensive. Thing is, you need blue to make white. RGB. Once that happened, it became really easy to make replacement bulbs for household sockets. Three LED sites in the three primary colors could be blended to make anything from red to green to blue to daylight, to "warm white" simulating the familiar glow of incandescent, tungsten bulbs. But lacking in the unseen. The infrared, the warmest of the colors. Bulbs that hadn't changed much since Edison invented them back in 1879. A very simple device. A tube holding a vacuum, a void of atmosphere, allowing a thin filament of tungsten metal to glow at white hot temperatures without burning up and emitting light at a color temperature of 3500º Kelvin. This held fire, this warm glow, feels like lamp light, oil light, candle light, and the fires before that that we gathered around for warmth and community for millennia before that.
The LED is severing that thread of continuity. The screen you're looking at right now is an LED, the television in the room is an LED, the bulbs lit around you are likely LEDs, the lights in your office are nearly guaranteed to be LEDs. I understand the energy savings afforded by the super efficient, cool and long lasting LED bulb, but at what cost? I figure that since my home is nearly 100% solar run, I'm within my right to smuggle tungsten bulbs from other states where they're still legal. My hope is that in the near future with breakthroughs in renewable energy and nuclear fusion, we'll be able to abandon these technological abominations in favor of the warm familiar glow of the tungsten light. Until then, go outside. Enjoy the full spectrum that we evolved under for millions of years. Bathe under the radiation of our mother star.
These images of Vaunt were captured with nothing other than the light from above, through the windows. As simple as can be. See it all on Patreon by clicking one of the images or this here hypertext link.
