consumer, opening up a range of measures to take into account when defining the nature of the bulb. The point with the example of the changing lighting technologies of the 21st century is that, as mediators of vision, light from light bulbs (as well as candlelight and natural light) visually tint, shape and affect the material properties of things and their surroundings. It is not an ontic question of it exists, or a strictly ontological question of it is, whether what but rather it is. Light, in this sense, becomes embedded in the norms and visual habits, how whereby minor nuances matter, as they change the appearance of the material world. From this perspective, the of a thing is not limited to its physical shape. The thing may ‘being’ step out from itself be to follow the terminology of philosopher Gernot Böhme – ‘ecstatic’, (, ), and impose itself on other things, just as the light quality from a light bulb imposes itself on other things. Take for example, a blue glass. If the glass is placed alone in a white room, it will appear more vibrant to the bystander than if it were one among several coloured glasses. Add then that the glass will throw shadows by mingling with the light sources, and thus shape a blue rather than a simply darker patch, thus radically altering the surface and perception of the other object (, ). The essence of an object’s thus also ‘being’ becomes the way it tones and is toned by other things. The important point here is that, when focusing on the ecstasy of things, what is needed is not an understanding of what a
consumer, opening up a range of measures to take into account when defining the nature of the bulb. The point with the example of the changing lighting technologies of the 21st century is that, as mediators of vision, light from light bulbs (as well as candlelight and natural light) visually tint, shape and affect the material properties of things and their surroundings. It is not an ontic question of whether it exists, or a strictly ontological question of what it is, but rather how it is. Light, in this sense, becomes embedded in the norms and visual habits, whereby minor nuances matter, as they change the appearance of the material world. From this perspective, the ‘being’ of a thing is not limited to its physical shape. The thing may step out from itself – be ‘ecstatic’, to follow the terminology of philosopher Gernot Böhme (, ), and impose itself on other things, just as the light quality from a light bulb imposes itself on other things. Take for example, a blue glass. If the glass is placed alone in a white room, it will appear more vibrant to the bystander than if it were one among several coloured glasses. Add then that the glass will throw shadows by mingling with the light sources, and thus shape a blue rather than a simply darker patch, thus radically altering the surface and perception of the other object (, ). The essence of an object’s ‘being’ thus also becomes the way it tones and is toned by other things. The important point here is that, when focusing on the ecstasy of things, what is needed is not an understanding of what a
Bille_Hazy_worlds_final_pre_proof.docx