Three first-year Master’s students from Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm have banded together as Whatswhat Collective to show their new lighting exhibition at ICFF entitled Potential Energy. The largest art and design University College in Sweden, Konstfack offers undergraduate and graduate programs in everything from industrial design to ceramics and glass.

Potential Energy. Designed by Whatswhat Collective.

The trio of enterprising Konstfack students is composed of John Astbury, Bengt Brümmer and Karin Wallenbäck, who form the Master Group Formgiving Intelligence. Although they each hail from different countries, the individual designers in Whatswhat Collective share “a Scandinavian Connection,” which is readily displayed in each of their lighting pieces.

Part no-nonsense functionality, part simplicity, and part whimsicality, the lamps in Potential Energy “represent the presence of both suggested and actual movement.” A pendant light has a drawstring shade that can be manipulated into different shapes simply by pulling its string. Another lamp with both table and floor models employs its own electrical cord to cause shifts in its appearance. Whatswhat Collective explains that these lights express “a different take on potential energy, playing with structure, dynamics and atmosphere.” Pleated lamp shades become ballet tutus and chimney sweep brushes (especially in black). The table lamp with a wood base goes from animated to dejected, depending on the position of its white head. You can see all the ways that the lighting pieces in Potential Energy move in a Whatswhat Collective film, whose editing ensures that you’ll think the lamps are possessed with volition, their form indicative of a mind and body of their own. Potential Energy will make you wonder if these lamps become truly alive only while you’re absent!

Via Dezeen