Project Info

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Life Integrated Network: 70+ Samsung Flip Phones Transformed Into Living Art

NXT Museum and Samsung had a vision: turn the Samsung Flip phone into living art. For their exhibition 'Life in a Different Resolution' with Random International, we created an installation where the phone itself became the canvas.

Project highlights

Years on display
1.5
Samsung Flip Phones
50+
Daily User Engagement
300+
Average Interaction Time
4 min
Motion tracking accuracy
90%
Real-time synchronization across all Samsung Flip phones
100%

"There are not a lot of artists that can deliver such a piece in 4 weeks, to program an interactive digital artwork with 70 phones, that looks incredible and that works… it always works"

Merel van Helsdingen, Director of NXT Museum

Background

We had a broader ambition: use the Samsung Flip to explore questions that linger. Can life be decoded like software? Do its patterns follow rules we can predict? And where does the line blur between humans observing technology and becoming it?

Our Inspiration and processs

We had 50+ Samsung Flip phones and started with a simple idea: treat each one like a living organism.

That question opened up something bigger. What happens when organisms come together? There's a pattern in nature where individuals become something more. Ant colonies. Human bodies. Superorganisms.

We built exactly that. Each phone hosted a living entity that started as a single cell and evolved into a swimmer. Alone, they were interesting. Together, they became one interconnected system, responding to the world around them.

Technology for inclusion

To ensure the interaction was truly inclusive, we developed a motion-based tracking technology designed for accessibility. This approach allows multiple users, regardless of their clothing, body type, or the use of assistive devices, to seamlessly engage with the installation.

Each Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 device became the host of an organism, swimming, existing, reacting to stimuli, and becoming part of a group.

We took inspiration from nature

One key principle was that the technology we used had to reflect the behavior of a superorganism. For example, we used an algorithm to simulate how the phones should be arranged, and connected all the devices to a central computer, mimicking natural systems.

A talk show about digital art

At the end of the project, we were invited to the Inspiration Academy, a live show broadcast from the Amsterdam Tower, to talk about our process, our inspiration, and our perspective on digital art with Merel van Helsdingen, the director of the Nxt Museum.