FRAMED* Solves The Problem Of Hanging Digital Art

Finally, a display for 21st-century art that doesn't look like it came from Best Buy.

If digital fine art is going to get the respect it deserves, it needs to look as good on the wall as a Monet or Picasso. But because most video or interactive art requires a large screen, its "frame" is often a tacky looking monitor or TV. A concept product calledFRAMED* aims to change that, by providing a classy, minimalist video display that makes contemporary digital art look just as timeless as the stuff made hundreds of years ago.

FRAMED* combines a 40-inch HD Samsung LED display with an Intel Core i5 processor running Windows 7, so it can handle anything the next Cory Arcangel comes up with. (It even has a Wi-Fi transmitter, microphone, and webcam built in.) But just as important as the horsepower under the hood is the matte-black frame blissfully unencumbered by flashing lights, antennae, buttons, or cords. The whole package was created by Yugo Nakamura (interface design), Yoshihiro Saitoh (interior/product design), and Om, Inc. (design & engineering).

According to its website, FRAMED* is intended as "a new platform for digital art, designed for everyday interior spaces." The "everyday" part is the real innovation here: Digital art should have a display that can look equally at home in a haute gallery, hipster loft, or family living room. And unless you want any of those spaces to look like a man-cave festooned with Best Buy-like eyesores, something like FRAMED* can't come soon enough.