‘Full Screen’ exhibit celebrates digital display art using Galaxy Gear smartwatches

Smartwatches have been discussed extensively for their hardware and software designs, but the Full Screen exhibition at the XPO Gallery in Paris, France, is celebrating the art their screens can display. Hanging from the walls of the gallery are 12 Galaxy Gear smartwatches, all of which have custom, screen-based artwork from different artists. Vincent Broquaire made the Minute After Minute animation, which shows what seems to be the sands of time piling up on the screen. Raquel Meyers presents Aztec Ballad, an animation she made in her signature carpet woven digital style. Visitors can watch the video animation on the smartwatch screen, showing Meyers’ cursor rearranging and creating the final animation piece by piece — it’s a process she calls “keyboardslöjd,” or drawing and crafting by typing.

This exhibit focuses on the powers and limitations of screens, and how physical screens are slowly becoming obsolete. In contrast to the Gear’s high-resolution screen, there’s a ten-meter wide low-resolution LED panel screen lying on the exhibit floor that displays all of the artwork on each individual smartwatch. According to the gallery, the juxtaposition of different sized screens is meant to make visitors think about the how digital displays have changed over the years from small, to large, and back to small again — and what will happen to digital art when screens eventually become extinct.

Photography courtesy XPO Gallery, images by Vincianne Verguethen