A replica of Stonehenge built out of an assortment of vintage electronics.

In physics, blackbody is a technical term—regardless if you can define it, you know it intimately.

In fact, you know it deeply.
Down to your DNA.

Red Sunset Arkhyp Kuindzhi (Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi), 1905–8 / Camp Fire, Winslow Homer, 1880

( 1 )

Red Sunset
Arkhyp Kuindzhi (1905–8)

( 2 )

Camp Fire
Winslow Homer (1880)

Nos Invisibles, Raffaele Mainella (1907)

( 3 )

Nos Invisibles
Raffaele Mainella (1907)

( 4 )

Chinese Lantern Plants as Children at Play
Utagawa Hiroshige (ca. 1842)

( 5 )

Blackbody emitters

Stela of Aafenmut, ca. 924–889 B.C.

( 6 )

Stela of Aafenmut (ca. 924–889 BC)

Joshua commanding the sun to stand still Hieronymus Ferroni (1687–1730)

( 7 )

Joshua commanding the sun to stand still
Hieronymus Ferroni
(1687–1730)

Terracotta rim fragment of a kylix (drinking cup), mid-5th century BCE / Dante and Beatrice before the Light, 1444–1450

( 8 )

Terracotta rim fragment of a kylix (drinking cup)
(mid-5th century BCE)

( 9 )

Dante and Beatrice before the Light
(1444–1450)

The Feast of Sada, Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, Abu'l Qasim Firdausi (ca. 1525)

( 10 )

The Feast of Sada, Folio 22v from the Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp
Abu'l Qasim Firdausi
(ca. 1525)

The sun.
Camp fire.
Candlelight.
Incandescent bulbs.

All lit the path to the modern era.

Human eyes and civilizations evolved around blackbody emitters.

Cone in a human eye / Pyramidion of Iufaa, 664–525 B.C.

( a )

Cone in a human eye, magnified
Light-sensitive receptor enabling color vision

( b )

Pyramidion of Iufaa (664–525 BC)

Cosmic Radiation Background<br />A perfect blackbody at 2.725 Kelvin / Ancient engineering

( c )

Cosmic Microwave Background
A perfect blackbody glowing at 2.725 K—remnant light from the birth of the universe.

( d )

Newgrange, Ireland (c. 3100 BC)
Neolithic tomb aligned to the winter solstice sunrise
Thomas Nugent CC BY-SA 2.0

The year-long figure 8 movement of the sun

( e )

The year-long figure 8 movement of the sun

Blackbody radiation spectral distributions / Great Pyramids of Giza

( f )

Blackbody radiation spectral distributions

( g )

Giza pyramid complex, Egypt (c. 2600–2500 BC)
Ancient tombs aligned with stars and cardinal points.

Enody Glyph

( h )

Enody glyph

Stonehenge / Enodyhenge

( i )

Stonehenge, England (c. 3000–2000 BCE)
Ancient stone circle aligned with the solstices

( j )

Enodyhenge (2025)

Then LEDs came around.

While they made things more convenient and sustainable, could we have lost something in the process?

The elemental resonance of blackbody light, its subtle warmth, its human scale.

Aten, the Radiant Disc of the Sun, Shining Upon Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Their Daughters. (1351–1334 BCE)
( I )
Aten, the Radiant Disc of the Sun, Shining Upon Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Their Daughters. (1351–1334 BCE)

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung / Margarete Büsing CC BY-SA 4.0
An unknown PCB with edge connectors and various glyphs.
Solar Eclipse from Caroline Island, H. A. Lawrence & C. Ray Woods (1883)
( II )
Solar Eclipse from Caroline Island, H. A. Lawrence & C. Ray Woods (1883)

Enody is a lighting and research studio in New York City developing the next generation of light—and enhancing what we find to be extensions of ourselves.

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