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The digital revolution has touched everything in our lives, including art.
Indeed, technology and art are often the same thing. Think of the iPhone. Some people see a smartphone, others see a design, a concept, a product of brazen imagination. In other words, functional art.
It was only a matter of time before the TV joined the realm of functional art, and that time has arrived. Called The Frame, this is a TV that acts as an artwork of your choice when not being used as a television.
The Frame is a 4K UHD television designed by Samsung in collaboration with the world-renowned Swiss designer, Yves Behar. And it is so impressive that it received the Best of Innovation award at the prestigious CES 2017, a global consumer electronics and consumer technology trade show in Las Vegas.
When not being used as a television, motion sensors keep the screen on as an artwork and light sensors adjust the screen brightness for optimum display, making it useful as well as beautiful.
What really sets it apart is that it has interchangeable bezels (frames) – black, wood, white or metal – that you can change according to the feel that you want to create.
If you’re an art lover with walls covered in magnificent works, a big black television need no longer deduct from the look you are creating. The Frame mounts flat against the wall right alongside other artworks and photographs, enhancing your collection and conforming to your interior design style. If wall space is limited and you prefer The Frame to be a standalone feature, an elegant studio stand can further enhance its look.
When it comes to the artworks themselves, this has been covered. The Frame comes with the ‘Samsung Collection’, which consists of 100 works from 37 artists over 10 genres. Whether you enjoy pencil drawings, watercolour paintings, abstract art or photographs, you can curate your space.
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Or, if you are an aspiring artist or a keen photographer, you can program The Frame to display the work you created. You can also display family pictures, selecting your own mount board style and colour. So, after an overseas holiday or a photo shoot with loved ones, make a selection of the most memorable shots and proudly display them on The Frame.
And for additional options to personalise The Frame, you can visit the online Art Store to view and purchase work by internationally famous artists. This can either be on a permanent or monthly basis, to ensure each personalised art collection remains fresh and contemporary. Partners include Albertina Museum, LUMAS, Magnum Photos, Saatchi Art and Sedition.
“Essentially this ground-breaking marvel of a television enables consumers to decorate their homes with an impressive digital collection of internationally renowned works of art, which include architectural photography by Todd Eberle and Nacho Alegre, works from Tobias Rehberger’s 2016 series, screensavers and mixed-media collages by Barry McGee, at a small fraction of the market value,” said Justin Hume, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung South Africa.
Yves Behar explains that the thinking behind The Frame was to create another function for a device that only comes to life when providing entertainment. “We began to think about a display that offers new inspiration in our lives. In our smaller homes and apartments, when a television is off, its black square takes up valuable real estate. At the core of The Frame is the experience it provides, one that allows users to enjoy a selection of artworks that are automatically displayed and naturally dimmed and brightened throughout the day.
“Samsung and my team built every element of the TV, from the hardware to the art platform, on this foundation. The user experience, for instance, is meant to emulate a digital art space, so we designed it to be simple and beautiful just like a gallery, with the artworks themselves as the primary visual focus,” he says.
As a fairly typical consumer when it comes to watching TV, Behar was coming from a place most of us identify with. “There are a few programmes I enjoy watching, but for most of the day my TV is turned off. In the past, I designed a piece of furniture to conceal it when it wasn’t in use. The Frame is really a turning point as it enables me to keep my display out in the open while simultaneously adding to my home’s aesthetic value through new artworks. I think we are witnessing a new era for televisions, one where they are a portal into art.”
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