DREAM MACHINE BY FRANK KOLKMAN
Dream Machine, developed by Dutch designer Frank Kolkman, is a stroboscopic flicker device producing visual stimuli that seeks to interface Swarovski crystal with neurobiology, neuropsychology and psychoactivation techniques. The project is an attempt to identify possible strategies that could help us cope with the cognitive demands of our modern lives, looking to create new notions of ‘smartness’ that go beyond the automated dream of making our lives more streamlined and efficient.
 
Building on the work of artists from the 1950s and 1960s, such as Brion Gysin, Tony Conrad, Bernard Leitner, and Ugo La Pietra, Kolkman has created an immersive crystal ‘Dream Machine’. By generating light and sound patterns that synchronize with alpha and theta brainwaves, this machine allows individuals to enter a state of deep relaxation or ‘artificial dreaming’.
Sam Conran, a sound artist based in London, has created a bespoke 3D composition based on brainwave stimulation in the alpha/theta range. Using binaural beats, the sound design is inspired by diffraction patterns in X-ray crystallography. 

The Dream Machine responds to the trends of wellness and wellbeing, preventative care and alternative medicine where achieving a healthy body and mind has become a major focus in the contemporary world (exemplified by the increase in natural supplements, bio grocers, fitness strategies, progressive healthcare). Kolkman’s design represents the increasing integration of such practice into our daily lives and begins to speak about cognitive science and technology as part of daily health routines using the natural properties of crystal as a source of inspiration. The dream machine was designed with yoga mats and home gym equipment in mind, speaking to the next wave of wellness equipment that moves beyond the treadmill.
 
Frank Kolkman commented: “Technology today advances very rapidly and sometimes without much consideration or critical thought about how it can be meaningfully implemented in our lives. I believe design can be an excellent sense-making tool amidst these developments and I’m excited by exploring ways for it to do so.”  

SLANTED TILES BY STUDY O PORTABLE
For Design Miami/ Basel, Study O Portable builds on their interest in creating work that gives new perspectives on the things we take for granted in our everyday life. According to their design ethos, technology - both new and old - works as a facilitator for these new perspectives, not by deciphering it completely but by giving us a glimpse of what is possible. With this in mind, the designers worked with Swarovski’s cutting technology to explore the blurring of light and color that emanates from the crystals.
The designers associate blurry and fading colours with nature, such as the sunset or changing colors of leaves on a tree, and have created surfaces that can be translated into a series of stunning screens. Embracing the emotional impact of crystals, Study O Portable are pursuing a more analogue route in their response to what smart living entails.
 
Bernadette Deddens and Tetsuo Mukai of Study O Portable commented: “It’s been really interesting to talk to the team and learn new things about the material, processes and applications of Swarovski crystal. To work directly with set materials and processes is a different way of working for us which has been really enjoyable.”
 

CAN CRYSTALS INTERFACE US TO AI? BY YOSUKE USHIGOME OF TAKRAM
For Design Miami/ Basel, Ushigome is exploring the future of Artificial Intelligence in domestic settings. Based on his interest in how our behavior is changing due to the emergence of AI home assistant devices, Ushigome asks what happens if we insert a more cultural and mythical interface between us and these assistants.
 
In fact, interaction with the voice-activated assistants and smart-home devices is shaping the way we – and especially children – communicate. His concept imagines a world where Swarovski crystal takes the role as a cultural mediator between human and machine intelligence by inserting ritualistic, culturally-rich, but yet intrinsically familiar interactions between the two. With this in mind, Ushigome has created a home shrine which delivers data in an eccentrically conversational and ritualistic way, intended to counteract the direct, robotic exchange typical of most smart home devices. The home shrine also calls to attention how we integrate technology into our homes and what those methods symbolize - what meaning does a traditional Japanese butsudan hold vs an Alexa device? 

BUILDING ON A CONTINUED PARTNERSHIP TO SUPPORT EMERGING DESIGNERS
The 2018 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award winners were selected by a jury of leading figures in the design world, including Nadja Swarovski, Member of the Swarovski Executive Board; Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Creative Director Design Miami/; Yves Behar, entrepreneur and founder of fuseproject; Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum, London; Jonathan Margolis, Contributing Editor of Financial Times and Karen Wong, Deputy Director of New Museum NYC.
 
The resulting works have been unveiled today to an influential audience of collectors, curators, designers, critics, gallerists and journalists at Design Miami/ Basel 2018. For Design Miami/ and Swarovski, the award offers the opportunity to promote new talent and contribute to the wider design conversation through work that challenges traditional design approaches. 

ABOUT THE 2018 WINNERS

Frank Kolkman (NL) is an experimental designer whose latest projects include: an out-of-body experience simulator, a Domestic drug screening kit, a DIY Surgical Robot and proposals for a Humane Caviar Extraction Super Yacht & a Synthetic Rhino Horn Growing Device. Trying to combine his curiosity towards the inner workings of things with analytical thinking and intuitive making, Frank aims to challenge our understanding of current and near-future technologies and their sociopolitical implications.
Frank holds a Bachelor degree in Product Design from ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem (NL), and a Master degree in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art in London (UK). www.frankkolkman.nl

Study O Portable, founded by Bernadette Deddens (NL) and Tetsuo Mukai (JP), is a research based practice that makes objects about the designed environment, and our relationship to the cultural landscape that enables it, with a particular interest in the transitional nature of our ideas towards objects. Since 2009, the work of Study O Portable has been presented internationally at Design Miami (Miami Beach, Basel), London Design Festiva, Design Parade (Hyeres), Gallery FUMI (London, Porto Cervo), Caroline van Hoek (Brussels, Knokke), Phillips de Pury (London, New York), Dutch Design Week (Eindhoven), PAD (Paris, London). www.studyoportable.com
 

Yosuke Ushigome (JP) is currently working at celebrated Japanese design studio Takram’s London office as a creative technologist. His primary interests are centred around emerging technologies. He probes future visions that they promise, reveal the cultural and political mechanisms behind them, and illustrates the insights through making physical and digital prototypes. By doing so, he aims to facilitate in-depth understanding of the implication of emerging technologies, and encourage better-informed decision-making on our future. www.yosukeushigo.me 

ABOUT SWAROVSKI
Swarovski delivers a diverse portfolio of unmatched quality, craftsmanship, and creativity. Founded in 1895 in Austria, the company designs, manufactures and markets high-quality crystals, genuine gemstones and created stones as well as finished products such as jewelry, accessories and lighting. The Swarovski Crystal Business is run by the fifth generation of family members and has a global reach with approximately 3,000 stores in around 170 countries, more than 27,000 employees, and revenue of about 2.7 billion euros in 2017. Together with its sister companies Swarovski Optik (optical devices) and Tyrolit (abrasives), Swarovski Crystal Business forms the Swarovski Group. In 2017, the Group generated revenue of about 3.5 billion euros and employed more than 32,000 people.

A responsible relationship with people and the planet has always been an integral part of Swarovski’s heritage, and is embedded today in the company’s well-established global sustainability agenda. In addition, global Swarovski Waterschool education program has reached 500,000 children on the world’s greatest rivers, and the Swarovski Foundation, set up in 2013, works to support culture and creativity, promote the rights and wellbeing of women and children, and conserve natural resources to achieve positive social impact.
www.swarovskigroup.com