Dubai-based Anjali Srinivasan is one of the three winners of the Swarovski Designers of the Future Award, exhibiting her undulating wave of interactive tiles at the Design Miami/Basel which ended yesterday (June 19).
Swarovski – Design Miami Basel – Designers of the Future 2016
The designers were asked to interpret the theme of “betterment” through their creative process, using Swarovski crystals and focusing on new and innovative technologies to complete their projects.
Studio Brynjar & Veronika and Yuri Suzuki are the two other winners, whose experiments resulted in crystal blinds that make rainbows when hit by the sun and a musical instrument that emits sound through crystal.
Srinivasan’s Unda installation focuses on the human touch by developing a touch-sensitive crystal tile that responds to touch with illumination. The light illuminates across the crtystal surface and fades once there is no contact.
Unda bu Anjali Srinivasan
The project is described as an architectural interface for crystal drawing, and measures 1.6m in width to 6m in length.
“Crystal is a highly engaging material because it is a solid object that creates visual effects that you cannot touch,” said Srinivasan.
Unda is made up of a puzzle of 3,000 Swarovski crystals and 5,000 glass pieces blown and produced in Anjali’s studio in Dubai. The crest consists of 1,500 Touch Crystals containing LED technology, which will activate when touched.
A gradient of earthy white, blue green, and gold tones run through the surface of the installation as the crystal blends into Srinivisan’s hand-blown glass.
Sharevari by Yuri Suzuk
“I’m looking forward to continuing to explore this crossroads between physical and optical phenomena in my work. I’m also fascinated by the challenge of creating human-centric design, so I’m excited to further explore this relationship between material, data and people,” she added.
London-based Japanese sound artist Yuri Suzuki’s mechanical crystallaphone is also interactive, using crystal as an acoustic material.
His project entitled Sharevari is an instrument that consists of 16 brass structures, or ‘notes’, each created in handmade crystal, that are arranged in a semi-circle. When the brass hammer hits the crystals, the vibrations create a beautiful sound.
Currents by Studio Brynjar & Veronika
“My audience can be quite wide-ranging, from very tech-focused people to musicians, but this is a precious opportunity for me to show and exchange ideas as part of a global design platform,” Suzuki said “I was very excited to investigate how the vibrations in crystals can be interpreted as sound. Exploring the Swarovski archives to look at past innovations was invaluable research.”
Swarovski – Design Miami Basel – Designers of the Future 2016
The third winner, Studio Brynjar & Veronika have created a set of thirty primsic slats that form window blinds that create rainbow patterns when struck by light.
The studio also created decorative crystal sticks that also cast coloured shadows.