The light breathes slowly over the surface. When visitors get near, the peaks of the black stems start to enlighten, as if the reed awakens. When they stroke the stems with their hands, a wave of light arises. When they clap their hands we see a firm thunderbolt. The stems tap each other and produce soft cricket sounds. As if the visitors are idiots they ran through the museum, closely followed by the flash fire and chatter of the reed.
This is Dune at the Stedelijke Museum in Amsterdam; part of the exposition 'What Design Can Do'. 'Touch and Tweet' is this years theme. The sign 'Please Don't Touch' next to Dune is replaced by the sign: 'Please Touch.' The artpiece merges nature and technology and is composed out of large amounts of fibers that brighten according to the sounds and motion of passing visitors. A merge that Roosegaarde likes to call 'Techno-Poetry'.
ABOUT STEDELIJK The Stedelijk Museum is an international institute in Amsterdam; devoted to modern and contemporary art and design. The museum reopend in September of 2012 after eight years of renovation. During the exposition of Dune; the Stedelijk will also expose installations of Van Hellicar & Lewis in the museum. Dune is visitable at the Stedelijk from 20.00 on the 16th of May.
ABOUT STUDIO ROOSEGAARDE Studio Roosegaarde is the social design lab of artist Daan Roosegaarde with his team of designers and engineers. Roosegaarde has been the focus of exhibitions at the Tate Modern, the National Museum in Tokyo, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and winner of the Dutch Design Award and China's Most Successful Design Award.
