The Creative Uses of LED Lighting

From fashion to music to art, LED technology is giving designers and artists innovative new ways to express themselves.

/
Navigation First Previous Next Last

  • The 2010 Italian Light Sculpture Festival in Nanjing, China, featured 75 works composed of 560,000 LED lights, and demonstrated the inventive ways artists and designers can use LEDs in art and architecture.

     

    ©2012 Source / Courtesy of Imaginechina/Corbis

     

  • Another view of the Italian Light Sculpture Festival in Nanjing

     

    ©2012 Source / Courtesy of Imaginechina via AP Images

     

  • This tabletop lamp—unveiled at the Milan Furniture Fair in 2009—features a LED strip that displays animated text by the artist Jenny Holzer within a Baccarat crystal base. Designed by Philippe Starck, in conjunction with Moritz Waldemeyer, it was built by lighting design company Flos.

     

    ©2012 Source / Courtesy of Moritz Waldemeyer

     

  • The German artist Jan Leonardo Wöllert practices Light Art Performance Photography, in which a performer uses LED lights in choreographed movements that are captured on film using time exposures. The result is a photograph in which light is both the subject and the medium.

     

    ©2012 Source / Courtesy of JanLeonardo—www.lightart-photography.de

     

  • Another of Jan Leonardo Wöllert's works using LED lights.

     

    ©2012 Source / Courtesy of JanLeonardo—www.lightart-photography.de

     

  • For electronica artist Amon Tobin's "ISAM" live show, a group of technologists created a complex set of geometric cubes, and developed an elaborate "4D" sound-and-light show utilizing LED pixel mapping, in which software is used to map things like video onto displays composed of LED lights.

     

    ©2012 Source / Photo by Marc Broussely/Redferns

     

  • These jackets were designed for the members of U2 to wear in their 360° Tour (2009-2011). Each jacket was built by hand and contains more than 5,000 LED lights; the lights created striking visual displays thanks to wireless, real-time control using software developed by wearable technology company CuteCircuit.

     

    ©2012 Source / Courtesy of CuteCircuit

     

  • For her 2010 "Last Girl on Earth" tour, Rihanna wore this LED dress designed by Moritz Waldemeyer, who frequently makes use of wearable technology in his creations.

     

    ©2012 Source / Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns

    The following securities were not held by the T. Rowe Price Science & Technology Fund, the T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund, the T. Rowe Price New Era Fund, or the T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund as of March 31, 2012: Flos and CuteCircuit. The funds' portfolio holdings are historical and subject to change. This material should not be deemed a recommendation to buy or sell any of the securities mentioned.