Luminous Digital Art Exhibition, The Harmony of OLED Tech and Art

The Royal College of Art was established in 1837 which is one of the most influential art and design institution in the world. RCA is also known for its prominent alumni including David Hockney who has a progressive auction sales record at Christie’s, the inventor of the dual cyclone vacuum cleaner, James Dyson and Apple’s previous chief design officer, Jonathan Ive.

This prestigious art and design school's IED(Information Experience Design) students collaborated their creative practice of design and experience with cutting-edge OLED. Let's take a look at what kind of new experience RCA IED students created using the cutting-edge OLED technology.

The Beginning of the Luminous Harmony

A man is holding a huge white object behind a Transparent OLED that shows blue and red patterns, and the other two students are staring at it.

A male student is operating a laptop with touch pad, and the other students are staring at the transparent display that shows a unique pattern.

Project ‘Luminous’ was named after the distinguishable self-emissive pixel technology of OLED and the creative approach of using the OLED as an art canvas. 52 IED post graduate students have applied not only for the opportunity to practice their creativity using the transparent and curved OLED panels but also for a chance of exhibiting their work in public. After a strictly impartial judging process (e.g., level of technological approach and creativity), 5 finalists were nominated and prepared for the exhibition for two months.

A female student sitting in front of a laptop and a monitor that shows a design program is staring at some point with her chin resting on her hand.

A male student is using a laptop touchpad with his chin on his arm, and the other man is staring at the laptop monitor beside him.

Luminous Harmony on Old Street

Walking down on the Old Street, the shrine of artistic inspiration known as a ‘street art canvas’, you can discover countless controversial graffiti arts by many artists such as Banksy. After two months of intense preparation, on September 28th at the Old Street Gallery, 5 final artworks were revealed.

Time-Flux

As soon as you walk into the gallery, the stunning four-layered Transparent OLED installation with spatial sound captivates the guests. The transparency and sound system provide different perspective of time by visualising the perceptual time in the form of light flux. This hologram-like installation showed a new side of OLED and even makes you think you can even touch.
Behaviours

The artwork ‘Behaviours’ uses the charcoal powder as the performer and captures the interactivity between the sound, paper, and charcoal – frequency and vibration from the sound create beautiful transforming artworks on the paper. This piece provides an immersive experience by the perfectly synced graphic and sound and every pixel works it best to deliver the ‘perfect black’ and the depth of the visual.
Invisible Reinvention

As you walk further into the gallery, a mesmerizing curved OLED and touch sensor installation takes your breath away. ‘Invisible Reinvention’ welcomes you to touch the interactive artifacts, which then triggers the graphics that portray the detailed carbon sequestration of ocean, soil and rocks.
A Room with a View

‘A Room with a View’ creates a contrasting disruption by mimicking a window in a home using two OLED displays. This hyper-realistic virtual reality installation was created using a 3D computer game software, Unreal Engine. It makes you susceptible to confusing virtual reality with an actual view of a window and the space shifting graphics steal your attention.
ALPHA[BETA]

‘ALPHA[BETA]’ paints colorful visuals on two Transparent OLED panels, representing post-language communication between brainwave scan and art. This mysterious yet captivating audio-visual art piece enables the communication beyond language and the affluent artwork hold the guests spellbound.

Finale of the Luminous Harmony

The five finalist artworks went through another review by the judges and three winners will receive a prize and an exclusive tour of its R&D facilities and the hub of OLED technology in Korea.

The judges sitting around in a circle are discussing contents of the examination with a serious look holding a paper.

Three participants are giving a presentation about the windows implemented by Transparent OLED, and the judges are focusing on their presentation.

5 special judges including Marc Barto, the digital producer at Victoria & Albert museum and Kadine James, the metaverse strategist and one of the most influential female leader in digital and technology all agreed how difficult it was to select winners from such creative and distinguishable artworks.

“The finalists we saw today had surprisingly advanced concept and complex questions for approaching the artworks.”
– Marc Barto, Digital Producer at London Victoria & Albert Museum

“It was a real challenge today for myself and for the other judges to be able to reach a decision. All of the work was of the highest standard.”
– Kadine James, Metaverse Strategist

Finally, the winners are being announced.

1^st place, ALPHA[BETA], Finbar Marcel
2^nd Place, A Room with a View, Alexandra Topaz, Devanshi Rungta and Laura Selby
3^rd place, Time-flux, Jiajing Zhao and Yueshen Wu

1^st place, Finbar Marcel
2^nd Place, Alexandra Topaz, Devanshi Rungta and Laura Selby
3^rd place, Jiajing Zhao and Yueshen Wu

“Having access to such advanced technologies opened up a whole world for me. I’m just so grateful and I hope other students in the future can experience something like this.”
Finbar Marcel, ALPHA[BETA], 1^st place winner

“The OLED technology has enabled the students to do things with color, with lights with sounds that they would not be able to do with what’s normally available. It is a real pleasure to exhibit such collection of works that blur the lines between art and technology.”
– Dr Danielle Barrios-O’neill, Head of IED at the Royal College of Art

Several people are standing or sitting in front of a canvas with RCA, LG Display logos on it and taking pictures, some of them holding certificates.

Luminous project has showcased the limitless potential of OLED technology and encouraged young artists. We look forward to seeing more artistic collaboration powered by the essential media art canvas, the OLED.