Shiny, happy: Interactive OLED wall trips the light fantastic

Milan – Imagine a wall of light you can interact with like a mirror. Now imagine that this wall of light reflects movement – your movement – as dark space as you walk past it, or stand and stare. Such is the effect created by rAndom International’s ‘You fade to light’ installation, a wall made out of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) shown at this year’s Salone del Mobile. The interactive installation was commissioned by Philips Lumiblade.

Develop by Philips in the early 90s, OLEDs have been with us for some time, but in their latest incarnation – slimmer and sans flicker- they have become the must-have tool of the season for architects, designers, installation artists and even retailers to experiment with. With this in mind, the design team at Philips is now producing 50-square-centimetre light plates or tiles that can be used to cover large commercial areas relatively cheaply. Also in the pipeline are OLED fabrics and textiles that can be integrated directly into cars, furniture, wall fabrics and room dividers.