Inside Circadia: Kip Geddes and the Shape of Light

Historical Circadia prototype on a pale wall, with a blue-to-pink luminous face, exposed side and a visible black power cable.
Historical Circadia prototype by Kip Geddes, from the studio archive. Courtesy of Oyster Wellness.

Circadia gives a field of colored light a physical form. Its broad face and luminous edges invite a closer look at the object itself—and at the experiments behind it.

An early panel at RISD

In Gradiance: a mindfulness intervention, his 2025 Master of Industrial Design thesis at the Rhode Island School of Design, Kip Geddes describes an earlier prototype called the Circadia Gradient Panel. He developed it after an experiment with an interactive light sculpture, turning his attention to a wall-mounted object for personal spaces.

The early panel paired a plexiglass box with a wooden frame. A sheet of plywood held LED strips behind the face, while the plexiglass’s diffusing texture concealed the individual lights. What remained visible was their color, mixed through the material.

Geddes began with gradients inspired by the sky. Wall mounting gave the panel room to be substantial without occupying the floor of a small home or office. Its depth also mattered: the light changed in appearance as the viewer moved around the object.

Returning to the prototype

Later in the thesis, Geddes returns to Circadia and reprograms it with slowly moving gradients, trying different color combinations. He then revisits the panel again, adding a separately programmed strip of light before exploring the texture of quilting batting as a diffuser.

These successive experiments became part of the research that developed into Gradiance. The earlier Circadia panel was a working object he could return to, change and learn from as his ideas evolved.

Historical Circadia prototype with violet-blue light above, a pale center and amber below, showing the luminous side and trailing power cable.
A second recorded light state of the Circadia prototype, with a cool upper field and a warm lower field. Courtesy of Oyster Wellness.

Face, edge and frame

Circadia, designed by Kip Geddes for Oyster Wellness, combines a broad frosted acrylic face, exposed luminous edges and a surrounding frame. Each material has a distinct part in the object.

Oak, Ash and Walnut bring the grain of wood into the frame; Clear and Blue anodized aluminum offer another material expression. Alongside those choices, the prototype photographs preserve a direct view of the experiments: a luminous face, visible depth and color carried through the panel.

Explore Circadia’s current finishes and details, or read Light as Art: Placing Circadia in a Room for practical guidance on its setting.

Design-history source: Kip Geddes, Gradiance: a mindfulness intervention, Rhode Island School of Design, 2025.