This digital organism lights up your garden and survives in any weather without any humans to help




Move over Tamagochi. This “digital organism” can live in nature and survive any weather without any human intervention while looking great at night, too!

Art installations that blend technology and nature are nothing new, but many simply take inspiration from nature in terms of design or structure. These installations also take up a lot of time and effort to maintain, not to mention electricity that could be used for more important purposes. That’s where Werc’s collection of light and sound installations comes in, taking inspiration from nature not in the way they look but in the way they “live” in nature, just like normal biological critters.

Designer: Werc Studio

Tane is described as a self-reliant art installation and a “digital organism” at the same time. It’s completely electronic, with no organic components, but it mimics how groups of organisms behave, especially when the weather is involved. At its most basic, each Tane, which is the name for both the group as well as individual “organisms,” is a solar-powered outdoor LED lamp. What makes it different is how it responds to the weather and to its neighbors, almost like a living creature.

During the day, it tries to soak up as much sunlight as it can while emitting a gentle noise that could call to mind daytime critters like insects and even birds. Tane starts its light show at night, but how it displays its lights is dependent on so many different factors, including the weather, that it almost feels random. Each night can be a different experience, and when all units in a Tane are fully charged, the art installation goes over the moon with a dazzling display of lights.

Tane is actually the third of Werc’s “Lumo” family of digital organisms. All three are also self-sufficient to a certain degree and communicate with each other like a flock but also respond to their environments in different ways. Pixi attaches itself to trees and reacts to temperature and humidity, while Lily floats on water and reacts to waves. Tane and its cousins not only how art and technology can be inspired by nature but how they can also learn from it to produce visually satisfying and also sustainable designs.




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These window-like lighting fixtures create playful geometric light displays when opened!





There are some architects whose work transcends their medium and pours into in-between spaces of the design world. Tadao Ando and Luis Barragán, for instance, might be aptly known for their artful geometric structures formed primarily from plastered concrete, but they’re perhaps better known for the ways they use light to dance and interact with the angles and surfaces formed from those concrete structures. Inspired by the renowned architects’ masterful uses of light, Brazilian designer Luiza Guidi created Māyā, a collection of simple lamp fixtures that when opened create enchanting light displays.

In Hinduism, Māyā is, “the power by which the universe becomes manifest; the illusion or appearance of the phenomenal world,” as Guidi notes. Appropriately described as an illusion, Māyā contains a lot more than meets the eye. When closed, the simple lamp structure almost appears as an empty picture frame hanging on the wall. When opened, in a similar fashion to that of a book, Māyā disperses light and forms geometric shadows and angles against the wall from which it hangs.

Constructed from steel rods with a hinge opening method, the minimalistic lamp fixtures can be peeled open to form multiple sets of different angles. When Māyā’s steel rods are fully unfurled, forming an obtuse angle with the lamp’s hinges, the initially concealed lamp fills the wall with warm, golden light and slim, fractal dark shadows. Then, when only slightly opened, larger geometric shadows are framed with soft beams of light. As Guidi puts it, Māyā embodies, “the simplest design with a bewitching result.”

Designer: Luiza Guida

Depending on how far you open Māyā’s hinged lamp, dazzling shadows and angles light up the wall from where it hangs.

Constructed from steel rods, Māyā’s lamp initially remains concealed.

When closed, Māyā appears as an empty photo frame.

When left ajar, Māyā pours golden light across the wall and forms darker shapes and fractals from shadows.

When opened only slightly, Māyā’s center shadow element is bordered with slim beams of golden light.