Shadowplay

A simple ring of light on the wall – if you point your finger into the center, your own shadow becomes the hands of a shy clock. Fragile, transient but present like yourself.

Shadowplay was first presented to the public during this years edition of Vienna Design Week. It is our latest piece of non commercial work and the conclusion of a summer dedicated to some experiments about interaction design with LED lights and micro controller programming. We had the feeling that this outcome is a nice contemporary combination of crafts, technology and human interaction. It was quite important to us to keep that scope balanced.
Therefore it is also an object that will surprise and reach people emotionally. This is something paramount in our work. We try to create things which encourage others and provide a different perspective beyond styling matters.
That’s why at first sight this clock is just some ambient light on the wall… until you interact with it. Then it actually makes you the most important component of the whole concept. If you touch the wall in the centre of the ring, the clock will dim all the lights but two spots which illuminate your index finger and make it cast two shadows which resemble the hands of a clock. So your own shadow tells you time. You tell time.

Prototype, 2015
Material: Wooden frame, interactive light installation (LED), shadow;
Diameter: 73cm