30 Curved OLEDs Create Kinetic, Hanging Flower Meadow At London Exhibit

January 12, 2022 by Dave Haynes

There have been a few examples out there of LG’s super-thin, open frame OLED display panels being used to do things like curved walls and ceilings, and even some fixed sculptures. But here’s a case in which the displays were set in flower petal shapes, suspended, and then made to gently open and close using robotics.

It was for contemporary art exhibition at a venue called 180 The Strand in central London. The show ran in fall 2021 and finished last month. It was part of an LG OLED ART series sponsored and encouraged by the company, presumably to drive awareness and usage among creators and what are often deep-pocketed modern art buyers.

The show was built in part around five kinetic screen sculptures suspended from the ceiling, each with six OLED screens. “Assembled under the rubric “Flower Meadow”, the five kinetic screen sculptures each consist of six flexible OLED screens,” says iArt, the Swiss collective behind the pieces. “Arranged in petal-like formation, and controlled by a complex drive, they open up like natural blossoms. The virtual flowers shown on the screens were put together with the help of an AI from thousands of flower images. Thus, the ceiling of 180 The Strand blooms again and again—with new flowers in ever changing hues.” 

Beautiful and interesting, but likely pretty limited in terms of commercial possibilities. First is cost, as always. But probably more to the point, operations people would be very jumpy about the longevity of the panels as they are steadily, albeit gently, bent.

I saw something like this from LG – but fixed, not kinetic – at the electronics giant’s stand at the SID show in San Jose back in May 2019. Remember trade shows?

Here’s a Linkedin video: