A postmodern light switch, typically a ‘rocker’ switch, is a light switch that doesn’t have a specific click for off and on; instead the switch position is unreadable or ambiguous. Even the act of looking at the switch yields no information. On or off? – woopsy woops. Suppose in the dark I want to turn the light on. I press it but nothing happens. Mm, maybe it’s broken? I press it using the other half but still nothing. Perhaps there is a two second delay; but in my impatience I have already opposite pressed again and now remain doubly uncertain – the situation continues and so perhaps it is broken? Perhaps I didn’t wait long enough? But which way didn’t I wait long enough, was it the first time when I pressed it up; or was it in fact the second, the time when I pressed it down without waiting sufficiently for the system to connect with itself? After about five attempts at this, finally the light is on – on but I remain uncertain as to which action effected this result. Muttering frustratedly to myself I wander off into the room and leave it all be. Clearly, what we have is a light switch for which the function of turning the light off and on is too simple. All that is clear is that things are not obvious; there is no old-world bi-polar light and dark diffusion; where on is on.
Tags: Postmodern lights
