Manufacturers are rushing toward the light—specifically the diffuse, uniform light cast by organic light-emitting diodes. They are encouraging consumers to move toward it, too, by commissioning projects that demonstrate the technology’s applications to specifiers. In 2008, for example, Osram Opto Semiconductors unveiled limited-edition OLED table and pendant lamps by Ingo Mauer. Months later Osram competitor Royal Philips Electronics launched its own OLED equipment, called Lumiblade, and this year the Dutch company has taken its application show on the road.
Philips has hit the design-fair circuit to cultivate interest. In April it staged an installation at the exhibition venue Superstudio Piú in Milan while the city hosted the Salone del Mobile. There, the maker unveiled Lumiblade Mirrorwall, an illuminated mirror by the London-based Random International. According to Random studio director Hannes Koch, a motion-tracking camera connected to a mainframe choreographs a plane comprising 1,024 lighting plates to illuminate according to the movements of nearby users. “We left it completely pure,” Koch says of exposing the OLED components, noting that the circuit boards from which the OLEDs are mounted provide the installation’s sole armature. Today Philips is also marketing Mirrorwall as a limited-edition piece.
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