You fade to light. rAndom International
11.11.2009 – 07.02.2010

This experimental OLED-installation created by the design and art collective rAndom International for Philips Lumiblade is conceived as an interactive kinetic light sculpture: poetic, enigmatic and almost unreal with its warm white light supplied by 900 mirror-like Lumiblade OLED-modules (organic light emitting diodes).
The London-based Studio rAndom International is working at the intersection of science, design and art. Design is not seen as a completed product, but process-oriented, open, dialogical, in interaction with the viewer or user. “You Fade to Light” caused an uproar with its public when it was premiered in Milan at the Salone del Mobile 2009. A wall of organic light emitting diodes (OLED) which mirrors the viewers and translates their movements into light moments, or – in an inverted way – makes it possible for the viewers deactivate the shining wall through their movements for a short moment. Due to the interactive process of design the user experiences in a hands-on way the performance of most modern technology and of innovative, environmentally friendly material.
The London- and Berlin-domiciled design collective rAndom was founded in 2002 by Stuart Wood, Flo Ortkrass and Hannes Koch. Since then the trio is internationally causing a furore with their projects and providing also the less versatile viewer with the opportunity to have a more hands-on experience with innovations of the digital world. rAndom’s experience includes working at artist studios such as Olafur Eliasson, Philips Design and the BBC research laboratories. Collectively, the members of rAndom teach at at Ravensbourne College of Communication, and have been regularly teaching at the Royal College of Art, London. 2007 Philips commissioned rAndom to create an interactive light-installation for Philips Lumiblade showing by this means the new, unusual possibilities of the OLED-technology to a broader public: You Fade to Light
This future-oriented installation for the lighting design of the 21st century demonstrates rAndom’s experimental design approach in a very specific way - a highly topical issue for a design museum like Die Neue Sammlung: The sensible, economical handling of the energy resource, the intensely debated issue of lighting design and the ecological, sustainable thinking are all together connected to a specifically designed solution and at the same time to a sensuous experience for the viewer.