Digital Crystal: Swarovski at the Design Museum

Monday 20 August 2012

Hard Coded Memory by Troika






The next exhibition at London's Design Museum combines the work of new-gen designers with Swarovski's crystal archives. Running 5 September 2012 to 13 January 2013, Digital Crystal: Swarovski at the Design Museum explores the concept of how our tangible lifestyles are revolving into a digital age.

The exhibition leads with a video, a journey of light in a digital age by Random International. Semiconductor follow by placing the viewer in the heart of an animation, as the journey of a growing mineral crystal is creatively presented.

Pandora chandelier by Fredrikson Stallard


Design duo Fredrikson Stallard revisit their 2007 piece, Pandora Chandelier. This traditional-looking chandelier is actually a digitally-programmed installation; with progressive movement, the chandelier slowly explodes into a chaos of light and crystal before reforming back to its original state.
 
Hard Coded Memory by Troika
Troika takes the photograph, film and the notebook as its starting point. Dwelling on the change of how memories are now recorded, Troika's Hard Coded Memory presents a photograph through a Swarovski lens to create a blurred reinterpretation.

Wrapping crystal by Anton Alvarez

RCA graduate Anton Alvarez has incorporated crystal into his Thread Wrapping project: by spinning the yarn over objects, these pieces represent long-lasting artefacts.

Crystallize chandelier by Paul Cocksedge


Paul Cocksedge's Crystallize chandelier (commissioned 2005) focuses on the ethereal qualities of light. Through single crystals mounted onto a tubular glass frame, trajectory beams fill the room as light cascades from each crystal.

Lolita by Ron Arad
Originally designed for Swarovski Crystal Palace 2004, Ron Arad’s Lolita has been redesigned in order to receive tweets and SMS text messages that can now be displayed on its spiralling form.

Unfamiliar Mass by Hye-Yeon Park


Unfamiliar Mass is a 30cm completely crystal ring, designed by the Design Museum's designer-in-residence, Hye-Yeon Park. The piece represents an echo of a memory, revealing a secret polar bear-shaped crystal when cut open.

Amplify Chandelier by Yves Béhar





Yves Béhar’s Amplify Chandelier creates digitalised patterns by amplifying a Swarovski crystal within a paper lantern.

Other highlights from the exhibition include Hilda Hellström's minute-long film, exploring the crystal as a symbol for myth and narrative; Marcus Tremonto's futuristic hologram, representing the idea that memories could be captured in 3D; Arik Levy's Osmosis Film, which highlights the constant transitions of the real world through the gradual shift of particles from one place to another; and Philippe Malouin's project, Blur, which spins a Swarovski crystal at speed to create a colourful spectrum of light. The result is interchangeable, depending on the speed at which the crystals are spun.