24 hours without advertising on billboards, but with art

We don’t look at it anymore and we hardly look at it. The commercials that roll by on the digital screens at stations, in bus stops, at the library or just on the street. A brand of coffee, toothpaste, a perfume. Fast food or a clothing brand. Sometimes boring, sometimes quite creative. But almost always with the intention of getting the viewer to buy.

Thursday, October 6, it will be different for 24 hours. During the day, digital art can be seen on 5,000 screens in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen and Zwolle. More than five thousand graphic designers from all over the world submitted their designs, 800 works were selected by the initiator Studio Dumbar/DEPT and the curatorial team for the Design in Motion Festival. Their work will appear on the screens. The idea behind it? Show what can be broadcast on the billboards. And it’s just fun too.

Walk along screens

There are a lot of good designers, says Liza Enebeis of Studio Dumbar. “But not everyone has the stage to show it to a wider audience.” Digital art-loving audiences may want to plan a walk through various screens. Liza Enebeis: „We hope to surprise passers-by who know nothing about it. The picture changes every ten seconds. So if you have to wait five minutes for the train, or if you are eating your lunch sandwich, you can see quite a bit.”

There are various themes for enthusiasts. Within the theme Happy Hour there are humorous works on display. Like the work First I was Sad but Now I’m not by the Dutch Jurriaan and Aram de Groot. Statues of famous historical figures suddenly start to swing and dance in the public space.

Better than Real shows the beauty of reality, zoomed in, magnified or ‘different’. From the packed bright yellow squeeze/stress balls of the Dutch Jamie Aubin to the almost transparent (underwater) animals of Ada Sokól (Poland).

Collapsing buildings

Within the theme Type Only graphic art is shown in which words and letters dance smoothly or make jerky shapes in motion. Such as the numbers from the digital clock that form a flashing and flickering art by Hassan Rahim (USA) or the typographical work of Hey Studio (Spain) about women’s emancipation.

Shape Shifters is a theme in which all kinds of objects and figures change shape and color. Such as the Swiss Dirk Koy who uses 3D animations to make buildings collapse and rise again. His work can be seen at Schiphol Airport on gigantic screens in the departure hall.

Design in motion. See www.demofestival.com/ for locations, samples and designers.