April 21, 2004
Swarovski shakes up chandeliers with crystal SMSs
At Milan Design Week, glimmering in a black warehouse, an Art Deco falling spiral chandelier had crowds of party-goers mesmerised as they sent text messages to the light and watched their SMSs trickle through the crystal strands like a luxurious ticker tape, reports Reuters.
"A surrealist dream? No, a design from the house of Swarovski crystals as it blazes a new trail in the often stuffy world of chandeliers.
The Austrian crystal group teamed up with 10 designers to reinvent luxurious lighting at Milan Design Week, mixing 21st century technology with the clean cuts D. Swarovski & Co has been perfecting for the last 109 years.
The technology behind 'Lolita' is more likely to be found in a physics lab than a design studio. Electronic processors strip data out of a mobile phone and send it to strings of LED lights hanging inside crystal cylinders.
Electrical impulses then switch the tiny white lights on and off in sequence so the words of the SMS seem to slide along the sparkling strings."
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