Technology Blossoms

Five kinetic screen sculptures developed by iart were part of the exhibition "LUX: A New Wave of Contemporary Art", organised by SUUM curation and consulting, and helt at London's 180 The Strand from October 13 to December 18, 2021. In addition to iart's expansive installation, works by Refik Anadol, Hito Steyerl, Carsten Nicolai, Es Devlin, and other prominent exponents of contemporary media art were on display.

The five kinetic screen sculptures which made up "Flower Meadow”, consisted individually of six flexible OLED screens. They were arranged in petal-like formation and controlled by a complex drive to open like natural blossoms. A spherical soundtrack accompanied the spectacle which was mounted on the ceiling of 180 The Strand in London's West End.

The screens folded into each other, revealing the geometric surfaces that repeated and varied the physical form of the hardware. This created visual references between the screens, making the flowers appear even more complex than they already physically were. Virtual gloss effects evoked a subtle movement of light - as if the sun was sweeping over the flowers in sped up motion.

The moment they opened, the screen sculptures displayed images of actual blossoms in full radiance. Behind the scenes an AI had already analysed thousands of blossom images and had generated these new, completely artificial flowers.

With a virtual sweep of light, the tangible blossoms reverted to abstract patterns, and the screens contracted. The basic colours varied from red to yellow, violet to green. The artificial flowers on the ceiling of 180 The Strand opened and closed, evoking the natural rhythm of day and night, spring and autumn in a flower meadow.

It all started with a request from SUUM. The extraordinary flexibility of the LG screens had to be showcased in a way that had never been seen before. As a result, iart developed the idea of mechanically moving screen sculptures in the form of petals. In collaboration with MKT Engineering, a first prototype including a sophisticated mechanical substructure was developed in Spring 2021. After successful trial runs, four more flowers were built in Summer 2021 and installed at 180 The Strand in autumn.