Client: Forever 21
Location: New York, NY, United States
Completion date: 2015
Artwork budget: $1,500,000
Project Team
Artist
BREAKFAST
BREAKFAST
Artist
Zolty
BREAKFAST
Artist
Mattias Gunneras
BREAKFAST
Overview
The Thread Screen is a kinetic installation composed of 6,400 mechanical spools of thread that rotate through 36 colors to display images posted on Instagram from around the world. It stands over 13' tall and weighs over 2,000 pounds.
Goals
The artwork was commissioned by Forever 21. It symbolizes the convergence of Fashion, Technology, and Art, and puts creative control into the hands of their community. By adding the hashtag #f21threadscreen to an image on Instagram, a one's image would be sent to the screen and initiate a sequence made up of patterns, their username, and their image. The display was installed in Brooklyn, NY and live-streamed twenty-four hours a day for seven days.
Process
The Thread Screen is perhaps one of the most technically complex installations ever created. It was made from over 200,000 parts, all of which were designed from scratch by BREAKFAST, along with all the software to drive, process, and maintain the display.