https://medium.com/a-chair-in-a-room/let-there-be-light-switches-4652485e6a7e

Dan HillBlockedUnblockFollowFollowingJan 15Justin 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.