With Salone party season just around the corner, everyone is keeping their eyes peeled for the most innovative disco stimulators around. Cue 'Picó Blitz' by Kram/Weisshaar. Currently installed at Plusdesign Gallery in Milan, the mobile subwoofer sound system doubles as an installation for party players to get interactive with.
Since founding their studio in 2002, US-born Reed Kram and Munich native Clemens Weisshaar have graced the design world with their acoustic and tech-focused installations. Now residing between Munich and Stockholm, they were invited by Luca Martinazzoli and Andrea Caputo of Plusdesign Gallery to reinvent the Colombian Picó sound system. Inspired by the colourful South American culture of these bass-heavy soundsystems, the gallery decided to produce modernised design versions created by Kram/Weisshaar, Boris Tellegen and Dirk Vander Kooij in an exhibition called ‘Picó Project’.
‘Picó culture is all about the bass’ explains Weisshaar. Tapping into the world of coastal Colombian vibes, they married movement with sound, using a sleek reflective sheet on the front of the system. The ultra-thin polyethylene terephthalate mirror is manipulated by the system's pummelling bassweight, vibrating the material and warping its reflective view for an interactive disco experience.
Upgrading the classically vibrant and decorative Picó forms, a sleek party powerhouse on wheels was created. ‘['Picó Blitz' is] a direct translation of the Colombian into a more technologically advanced system,’ Weisshaar continues. The innovative features include a subwoofer bass reflex array composed of four 18-inch 1000W AES Fane Colossus 18XB woofers on a 12000W D-class amplifier with integrated DSP line-in XLR (got that?).
Kram/Weisshaar maintain the design with a simple lighting bolt insignia emblazoned across the sides of the speaker. In contrast, Boris Tellegen and Dirk Vander Kooij took different directions with their models, changing the shape of the Picó and creating more sculpturally abstract speakers.
This article was published on 17 February 2016
The reflective sheet on the front of the system is manipulated by the bass emanating from within, vibrating the material and warping its reflective view for an interactive disco experience
A sleek party powerhouse on wheels, the design reflects traditional black hi-fi systems – here branded simply with a lightning bolt
’Picó Blitz’ is an upgraded version of the classically vibrant and decorative Colombian Picó soundsystems
Boris Tellegen and Dirk Vander Kooij were also invited to reinvent the Picó systems, changing their shape and creating sculptural forms. Pictured left: Dirk Vander Kooij’s curvaceous design. Right: Boris Tellegen’s abstract structure
INFORMATION
For more information on the ’The Picó Project’, visit Kram/Weisshaar’s website
ADDRESS
Plusdesign Gallery
Via Ventura 6
20134 Milan
-
A new Oxford Street pop-up celebrates IKEA's blue bagsIKEA's iconic blue bag gets its own pop-up concept store, the 'Hus of Frakta'.
-
Audemars Piguet and Kaws have created the Royal Oak Concept watch we didn't know we neededThe Audemars Piguet x Kaws Royal Oak Concept Tourbillon 'Companion' is slick wrist-worn art
-
A friendly rivalry coloured by kinship: Wendy Maruyama and Tom Loeser on their two-artist show'I wanted to make furniture, just not traditional furniture, but weird furniture,' says Wendy Maruyama on ‘Colorama’, a two-artist show presented at design gallery Superhouse (until 11 January 2025)
-
Faye Toogood brings new life to Matisse’s legacyMilan Design Week 2023: tapped by Maison Matisse, the London-based designer has taken inspiration from the French master’s forms to create a collection of heirloom-worthy objects
-
Prada Frames 2023: Milan programme announcedProgramme announced for Prada Frames 2023 at Milan Design Week, the annual symposium curated by Formafantasma at Luigi Caccia Dominioni's Teatro Filodrammatici from 17 to 19 April
-
Alessi Occasional Objects: Virgil Abloh’s take on cutleryBest Cross Pollination: Alessi's cutlery by the late designer Virgil Abloh, in collaboration with his London studio Alaska Alaska, is awarded at the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2023
-
Salone del Mobile 2023: highlights from Milan Design WeekIn pictures: our highlights from Milan Design Week, held during the 61st Salone del Mobile 2023 (18-23 April)
-
USM launches blushing pink limited edition of its modular furnitureFollowing an installation during Milan Design Week 2022, USM launches a new pink limited edition of its Haller range
-
‘You don't want space; you want to fill it’: Milan exhibitionMaking its debut during Milan Design Week 2022 at Marsèll Paradise, a new exhibition by Matylda Krzykowski, explores how we approach the space we live in (until 15 July 2022)
-
Kohler and Daniel Arsham brought experiential art to Milan Design WeekLooking back on Daniel Arsham and Kohler’s Divided Layers installation, and the brand’s latest bathroom collection
-
Men’s mental health takes centre stage at an art and design exhibition by Tableau‘Confessions’, which travels to Copenhagen’s 3 Days of Design following its debut at Milan Design Week 2022, features commissioned work by 14 male artists, designers and architects, reflecting on toxic masculinity, vulnerability and mental health
