Thursday, November 15, 2018

A novel hi-tech "display" that's almost a new art form


I don't have a very visual imagination.  I'm good with words, but I can't paint or draw to save my life, and while I enjoy and appreciate some painting styles and schools (landscapes, some portraits, etc.), I don't like most modern alleged "art" at all.  However, some modern forms of visual expression are so novel that they catch my eye, and my imagination - including this one.

When art and function meet technology, you can bank on the product looking something a little like magic.

After years of dodging reinvention, the humble clay brick has met its 2018 match, with New York design studio Breakfast creating the Brixel: A brick that behaves like a pixel.

Brixels are “infinitely rotating” bricks controlled by software that can pivot and change colour in real time.

In revealing the project to the public this week, Breakfast’s co-founder and head of design Andrew Zolty said Brixels create a three-dimensional and interactive visual experience “whose look and feel can evolve over time via real-time data and software updates”.



“We saw an opportunity to blur the lines between what is deemed art, infrastructure and a digital display,” he said. “We sought to develop a new medium that would allow us to create a variety of captivating installations that are, at first, perceived as art, and second, deliver relevant information and unique experiences.”

. . .

According to the design team, Brixels can be used in a multitude of ways, whether that be for interactive art sculptures or architectural facades. While they can be controlled by an app, Brixels also respond to the movement of the people around them. Brixels are customisable by shape, colour, material and size.

To showcase what Brixels are capable of, Breakfast created Brixel Mirror, a 4.8 metre by 2.7 metre installation made up of 540 black and mirrored bricks that move on command.

There's more at the link.

Here's the Brixel Mirror in action.





There's another video here showing how they were made, and how they can respond to human movement by moving themselves.  A lot of interesting skull sweat went into these things.

Fascinating!

Peter

3 comments:

Margaret Ball said...

Even as the attackers broke through the wall at one point, the remaining segments of the wall rotated themselves so that the snarling dragon heads faced inwards and were able to lance their flames across the courtyard.

Old NFO said...

Interesting and that would be VERY disorenting if bright lights were included... Just sayin... :-)

Rick T said...

Archimede's mirror for the 21st century. Put a big one on a south-facing wall and add a tracking system. Friends get a dark wall. Foes are dazzled by a targeted reflection, and if you don't get the hint far out the wall can align more segments on you until you give up or are fried...