Arik Levy's contribution to the Digital Crystal exhibition at London's Design Museum in an interactive installation that uses visitors' body movements to mutate computer-generated crystals (+ movie).
In Osmosis Interactive Arena, visitors enter a darkened room with a screen at one end. By stretching an arm or hopping to one side, for example, they can mutate the crystals on screen in unpredictable ways.
Israeli-born and Paris-based designer Levy was inspired by the idea that a master jewel cutter can predict the shape of a cut stone but not how it will interact with the light.
The installation "generates unexpected results that one cannot create with conventional tools or intellectualised creativity,"Â adds Levy.
Digital Crystal continues until 13 January 2013. We previously featured two other installations from the exhibition – a mechanical projector by London design studio Troika and a series of 'light paintings' made with spinning crystal beads by Philippe Malouin.
Other projects by Arik Levy we've featured on Dezeen include another crystal-inspired piece for Swarovski and a pebble-shaped device for opening bottles.
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Here's a statement about the installation from Arik Levy:
Osmosis Interactive Arena
This installation creates a new bridge between the body movement, the eye, the sense of space and the impact that of all of these have over the geometric and structural mineral body.
This emotional interface transforms the object into a symphony of movement and colors, texture and density. We live on our planet not without impact, we engineer and progress not without transition... all of this generates unexpected results that one cannot create with conventional tools or intellectualised creativity.
This relates to Swarovski being a master cutter. Crystals get cut and formed by advanced tools and mechanical actions: the one and only parameter that we have a hard time to simulate or predict beforehand is the light and the way it will interact with the cut stone. This small place of incertitude is where my action takes its place and expression.