Dezeen Magazine

Electric wallpaper connects speakers, lights and fans in installaton by UM Project and Flavor Paper

Lines of conductive ink thread between the protruding speakers and light boxes that form this interactive wall display, designed by UM Project and Flavor Paper.

Wallpaper company Flavor Paper collaborated with furniture brand UM Project to combine sounds, lights and motions in a decorative and playful display titled Connect, which they showcased at this year's Collective Design fair in New York.

Flavor Paper x UM Project

The designers intended the display to create a unified system between the wallpaper tiles and the speakers, lighting and moving objects, setting it apart from other projects using conductive ink.

"What interests us in the collaboration is of course using simple technology, connective ink, but the opportunity to bring together 2D design and 3D design together into some kind of an immersive experience," UM Project founder François Chambard told Dezeen.

Flavor Paper x UM Project

"Connective ink is not a new thing, you may have seen it in other projects that people can buy and use," he added. "But often the devices or the objects which are actually triggered by connective ink feel disconnected."

Flavor Paper x UM Project

To carry the current to the electrical items, the tiles were screen-printed with lines of conductive ink and linked by copper tabs at each join.

Flavor Paper x UM Project

Circuits were triggered by the touch-sensitive circular pads at the end of the ink lines, while other interactive elements including a perforated copper tube resting on a copper support could be removed to break the flow of electricity.

Sections of wallpaper patterned with images of green leaves provided accents for the display, while "millennial pink" – which dominated Milan design week last month – formed the backdrop.

The colour was chosen to complement the "rosiness" of the copper detailing.

Flavor Paper x UM Project

In one section of the installation, a looped circuit turns on a horizontal light in a white box and causes vertical black lines to rotate away from a gridded square behind.

A box, which is divided into four sections of dotted lights, is turned on by another circuit, while a white speaker system projects from another portion.

Modular elements in the Connect system can be made up of different colours, patterns and devices, so that it is can be adapted for different environments.

Flavor Paper x UM Project

The Collective Design Fair ran from 3 to 7 May 2017 at Skylight Clarkson Square, 550 Washington Street, New York. It took place as part of the citywide NYCxDesign festival, which continues until 23 June 2017.

Dezeen's top picks from the fair included rusty red lighting by Apparatus and furniture in icy forms by Fredrikson Stallard.

Photography is by Francis Dzikowski/OTTO.