Light Materials vs Self Illumination

The assignment was simple:
(1) Use a curve to emit light using an emissive material, have some sort of pattern on this curve.
(2) Use a simple geometry with a Light Material applied using a mask to cut away part of the object.
(3) Use a simple object(s) to emit light by turning the object its-self into a light source, and apply a texture to emit light from.

We learned the difference between those three criteria.