With Liquid Tiles, we at Lightnet have collaborated with the audiovisual artist duo Playmodes to create a kinetic audiovisual screen that combines technology, light and movement in a modular system. The installation consists of 126 computer-controlled rotating lights arranged in a precisely defined triangular matrix.
Each individual element is designed as a curved 60-degree segment. This geometric logic creates a continuous, connecting tessellation in the overall arrangement – known as Truchet tessellation, named after the 18th-century mathematician Sébastien Truchet. The structure allows individual modules to interact with each other locally. Movements and changes in state spread across the surface, forming complex, evolving visual patterns.
At its core, Liquid Tiles explores the question of how mechanical and digital systems can give rise to organically appearing behaviours. Although the installation is controlled by robotics, precise control technology and customised software, it exhibits a surprising liveliness. This is based on generative algorithms that define clear parameters for movement, geometry, colour and sound. Within these set rules, the system continuously reassembles itself.
The result is a continuous stream of changing light and sound configurations that appear like a quasi-living organism. The boundaries between physical object and digital process, between programmed sequence and organic effect, begin to blur.
Liquid Tiles is the result of close collaboration between Lightnet and the Catalan studio Playmodes. While artists Santi Vilanova and Eloi Maduell developed the specific firmware, software and generative systems for this installation, we at Lightnet researched, designed and manufactured all hardware components in-house. The development process was closely interlinked – inspired, among other things, by our Liquid Line product system and our expertise in modular lighting architecture.
For us, Liquid Tiles is more than an installation: it is a testing ground for industrial innovation and proof of how technological precision can be combined with artistic research. The project shows how collaboration between industry and contemporary art can create new perspectives in the fields of lighting design, kinetic systems and digital expression.
