Henry Glogau, the finalist in the 2021 Lexus Design Award, has created a device that solves two problems that people on the Chile coastline experience. One is that locals have plenty of saltwater but not enough pure water, and the other is that there is plenty of sunlight but nothing to harness its energy. The new device is a solar-powered lighting fixture that desalinates water, taking advantage of the abundant resources found in the area.

The Solar-powered Lighting Fixture Has An Exceptional Design

With clean water being scarce for over 100 000 families on the coast of Chile and power being supplied through unreliable electric lines, Glogau decided to create a device that could address both the lack of water access and indoor lighting. His hybrid solar-powered skylight and desalination device ensure that people can get both of the precious resources. Glogau said he wanted to create a design that is passive, sustainable, and could serve as a striking indoor feature for the people’s dark settlement homes.

Henry Goglau Is a New Zealander With a Master’s Degree from the Royal Danish Academy

Goglau specialized in architecture for extreme conditions in the Royal Danish Academy, which allowed him to develop the amazing new device. It can purify some 440 milliliters of water every day, and any leftover brine gets sifted into zinc-copper batteries. The batteries then power an LED strip that can be used for light during the night. In the daytime, the light is powered by a solar panel.

The solar-powered skylight and desalination device has a low manufacturing cost and is both functional and aesthetic. It utilizes the evaporation and condensation processes to create soothing lighting patterns that illuminate the walls and floor after the light goes through water droplets, vapor, and undulations.

Goglau is currently employed as an architect at GXN and doesn’t know if his invention will win the Lexus prize. He is just one of the six finalists, and while nothing is certain about the competition, his invention is already being installed in informal homes in Antofagasta, Chile, thanks to the help of local charities.

Tattoos, by their nature, are transformative. They turn a person’s skin into a canvas on which they can decorate with artwork they find meaningful or just aesthetically love. However, there are talented artists who can create tattoos that transform when someone moves. These tattoos all showcase the kinetic transformation that these tattoos rely on. In all, they’re all eye-catching and gorgeous.

There are certain pieces of imagery that we almost always associate with a movement. So, how can an artist capture those concepts in a typically stationary medium such as through tattoos?

This tattoo artist and their client decided to tackle this concept with a set of vampire fangs. The classic choice is to leave the mouth open, showing off the fangs. They did opt for this route but had an extra layer of creativity. When the person bent their arm, the mouth closed.

When it comes to transformative tattoos, there are a lot of options as to what you can do. One of the most popular trends, though, is an animal or insect opening its wings.

There are plenty of different examples of this but the first one we have is this delicate ladybug. The tattoo is made up of mostly dotwork but it’s done in a detailed fashion. It’s impressive enough when the person has their elbow bent but when their arm is straight, the outer wings open to reveal the ones underneath.

This tattoo of an insect expands on the beetles and bugs we often see in this style. It does this by adding a few abstract concepts to the tattoo.

As a result, the wings of this bug are a little different. When the person has their knee bent, the wings make up a single eye. However, when the knee is straightened, the wings spread, revealing a pair of eyes to the viewer. On top of that, the legs of the beetle seem to stretch as well.

This tattoo is perfect for any paleontologist or dinosaur fan. Who wouldn’t want their favorite dinosaur to come to life, in its own way, on their hand?

This person made it come true with a cleverly placed tattoo. The jaw of the skull is carefully positioned so that when this person moves their thumb away from their fingers, the jaw opens. In the opposite order, bringing their thumb closer to their index finger closes the skull’s mouth.

There’s nothing that makes a morning better like a freshly brewed pot of coffee. Some people even have strong opinions when it comes to how the coffee is made.

If you want to show how much you love a morning cup of joe and the craft that goes into making it, you could always take the route this person did. They decided to get a tattoo of pouring coffee that works no matter how their leg is positioned when they’re standing or sitting.

Tattoos that move with the wearer are a great chance for the artist’s creativity to shine. Like this person, you could create a creature that is reminiscent of a fantastical character.

In this case, the creature that is featured has a long body and shorter legs. When this person has their arm bent, they seem like they walk crouched over. For a taller model, all they have to do is extend their arm. The latter position even shows off some sharp teeth.

We already saw how insects, particularly beetles, are a popular choice for this trend. That’s because when they spread their wings, they show off more delicate, iridescent wings underneath.

For this tattoo, the subject was a beetle done in black and gray ink. The beetle, even on its own, is gorgeous. When the person with the tattoo extends their arm out, the result is viewers being able to see the rest of the tattoo. This includes the extended wings of the beetle as it takes off.

It seems like a lot of tattoos that are made to transform are on or even of joints. This means that something like a fossil works well.

Usually, when you see a jawbone like this on its own, it’s left to your imagination how the bone would move in action. That is unless there’s a handy visual like this tattoo to demonstrate. This particular tattoo even offers a bit of an optical illusion as to how the jaw is positioned.

Dinosaurs are often amazing to think about because they have a scale that it’s hard to imagine them in motion. That is, without the help of a little bit of science and art.

This is a problem that this tattoo artist and their client were more than happy to tackle. As a result, this fossil tattoo came to life. Like other transforming tattoos we’ve looked at, the position of this tattoo changes depending on how the person’s arm is bent.

When it comes to tools, there are times when you only use them when you need them. If you’re a handy person, though, these tools might symbolize a passion.

Either way, a stagnant tattoo of a tool doesn’t always pop as much as a more detailed subject matter. This tattoo artist and their client created a version that could transform instead. Depending on the position of this person’s leg, the handles of the tool are either opened or closed.

We’ve looked at a lot of black and gray tattoos so far in the list. However, there are benefits to adding color as well to make a tattoo pop against the area around it.

That’s exactly what this tattoo artist and their client decided to do. This means that not only is the beetle captured in painstaking detail but it’s beautiful and vibrant as well. Then, to top it off, once the person stretches their arm out, the wings underneath are on display.

There’s something to be said for a straightforward tattoo. There is a beauty to complex or hard-to-execute tattoos but that doesn’t mean that simple tattoos can’t be eye-catching.

This particular tattoo is designed more as a novelty to show off how transformative tattoos can be. As a result, they opted for a design that was just a stick figure and a trampoline. Depending on how the person moves their hand, the figure is either on or off the trampoline, giving it the illusion of movement.

There are few literary characters as instantly recognizable as the White Rabbit. If you aren’t familiar, he’s a central character in Alice in Wonderland.

This person took this character and got a little help creating an amazing tattoo. When their knee is bent, the rabbit’s head looks fairly standard. However, when they straighten their leg out, the rabbit changes a bit. Most impressively, the position of the ears changes to stand straight up or fold back.

When it comes to tattoos that transform, you have a lot of options. This includes everything from the most beautiful and realistic rendition that you’ve seen or something that dips into horror.

This tattoo falls into the latter. The tattoo starts out fairly terrifying when you see it from a compressed objective. However, once they stand up, you can watch the tattoo unhinge a jaw filled to the brim with sharp teeth. While frightening, we have to admire how well this tattoo turned out!

This tattoo is a little unsettling in its combination of concepts. For one, the moon is smiling but we’re pretty distracted by the fact that it’s inside an eyeball.

The uneasy air of the tattoo is something the wearer and the artist capitalized on as well. They did this by making the eye even more unsettling. When they extend their leg, the eye gets taller and a staircase entering the pupil is revealed. It’s an amazing effect but we might opt out of walking inside.

Earlier, we took a look at a mouth on someone’s arm that closed when their arm was bent. It’s a bit of intuitive movement that’s clever to add into a tattoo.

This is another version of the same concept. Once again, this is a mouthful of fangs that closes when this person bends their elbow. The biggest difference is in the design itself. While the other one relied on a pop of bright color, this more neutral pallet kicks things up a notch with increased details.

This tattoo is particularly intuitive and it’s all built off of a pretty unique design option: trapeze artists! The result is a tattoo that’s absolutely breathtaking.

It also transforms with this person’s movement, of course. If their knee is bent, the two trapeze artists join hands as if they’re just catching one another. Yet, if they straighten their leg, the trapeze artists seem to be flying through the air, getting ready to catch each other in a gravity-defying moment.

We’ve talked a lot about tattoos of bugs like beetles at this point. Still, we have to say, the trend works well with other insects like this bumblebee too.

When the person’s arm is bent, you can see this massive bee from wherever you are. The back of the bee, close to the stinger, even stretches across their arm! Yet, when they extend their arm out, you can see the bee extend its wings as if it’s taking off.

By now, we’ve seen a lot of tattoos that transform from one recognizable image into another. Movement in tattoos is often used to create something semi-realistic.

On the other hand, that doesn’t mean that artists with a more abstract flair don’t shine in this skill. This person has a tattoo that features plenty of swirling lines and bold colors to create a unique design. Rather than changing when they unbend their elbow, this tattoo expands to showcase the pattern further.

When it comes to tattoos, a portrait is already a specialized skillset. That’s why it’s so impressive when an artist adds to the design with a feature such as movement.

This artist already accomplished an impressive feat when they nailed this portrait tattoo that their client wanted. To make the design all the more dynamic, though, the figure is positioned so that when this person bends their leg, she changes her pose rather than distorting or stretching.

Interestingly, positioning a tattoo on a joint can do more than changing the pose of the subject when movement is taken into account. Instead, it can give a new perspective.

This person’s tattoo is a great example of this effect in action. In the first image, where the person’s arm is bent, it’s already pretty impressive. To add to this, though, when they stretch their arm out, the tattoo stays in the same pose but seems to extend further, giving it a more striking size.

Sometimes, the best choice you can make with a tattoo is to keep the design straightforward and simple. That’s what this person did and the tattoo still transforms in front of our eyes.

The tattoo itself is just a lime. While well-done by the artist, the real magic in this tattoo is in its placement. Even though it isn’t on a joint, when this person flexes, it still moves. In fact, it looks just like a real lime that you’d squeeze into a drink!

There are certain dinosaurs that stick out in people’s minds. Thanks to some of our favorite dinosaur films, there’s a high demand for content with velociraptors.

This particular artist and client have placed this velociraptor tattoo so that when the person raised their arm, the velociraptor would look up. On top of that, the design itself is creative. Instead of sticking to a fossil or fully-formed dinosaur, the design melds the two together by including the fossil with a solid black outline.

This is another example of an ever-popular trend in this style is. The tattoo in question is a beetle that opens its wings as the wearer opens their arm.

The tattoo is delicately executed, making for an absolutely gorgeous tattoo. It features a reliance on ink dots rather than a more realistic blend of colors. This gives the tattoo a distinctly stylized appearance that makes it all the more eye-catching when the tattoo wearer moves, the tattoo transforms.

Stepping further into tattoos that rely on creative style and flair over realism, we have another abstract tattoo. This one is sure to catch your eye, to say the least.

When the person’s knee is bent, the tattoo features a central eye with plant-life growing off of it like the fins of a fish. There are even smaller, simpler eyes in amongst these. For even more of an impact, this person only has to stand up to show off an extended version of the tattoo where the eye is bigger.

While we’re on the subject of eyes, there are other tattoos where the design is used to make an impact. This tattoo is another example of how this could be done.

This tattoo in particular uses a clever device to transform: a moth. Moths already have plenty of natural designs on their wings that make them noticeable. Adding a bit of abstract flair to the concept, this tattoo features a central eye when the person’s joint is bent but transforms to show off plenty more.

Deep sea creatures are already pretty out of this world. This means that artist renditions of these creatures leave a lot of room for unique interpretation.

This tattoo is placed on the side of this person’s knee. With their knee bent, the tattoo looks like a simple fish, albeit one that looks a little odd compared to the ones we see in the waves. When the person stands, you can see the fish grow taller and a staircase opens to invite the viewer inside. What a surprising transformation!

There are a lot of versions of this trend that use insects but the style beyond that can still make them unique. For example, this tattoo stands out from the rest for a pretty clear reason.

That is, this tattoo puts a heavy focus on realism. Even with the wings closed, the ladybug features a realistic design even in the color choices and life-like shading. Once the wings open, the tattoo becomes a canvas to display the artist’s skill for more detailed art pieces.

This tattoo is impressive in a number of ways. However, we’re largely caught up on the complete transformation that this tattoo undergoes when the person moves.

The result is a tattoo like this which makes for a whole new picture when the wearer moves. With their arm bent, the insect has its wings folded together and they appear as an eye. Once the arm is extended, the wings expand, showing a full eye on each one that the viewer sees half of each one with the wings together.

When it comes to tattoos that transform, there’s a general expectation. That is, you would expect a tattoo to transform into a similar concept.

This tattoo stuns viewers because it rapidly changes from a more realistic approach to a more abstract one. At first, with the arm bent, the fish looks almost lifelike, even with the eccentric quality of a deep sea creature. When they extend their arm, the tattoo transforms into a more abstract creature with an extended eye.

Like we’ve said, no one has ever had the chance to see a dinosaur to know about it. As such, we use artistic renditions to understand what a dinosaur might have looked like.

That’s one reason that they work well for transforming tattoos. These moving pieces of art can let us showcase on our skin not only what a dinosaur looks like but how it can move. This particular tattoo proved to be a great choice, especially opting for such a long-necked dinosaur.

There are a number of images that have made themselves traditional staples in tattoo designs. For example, there’s no shortage of skull tattoos.

On the other hand, this doesn’t mean that the tattoo has been done to death. In fact, tattoos like this one show how a classic design can be updated to fit your own personal style. The skull itself is detailed and expertly shaded but the transformation comes when they extend their arm. This causes the mouth of the skull to open and reveal an eye inside.

There are a lot of tattoos that transform by changing what the image is. Yet, there are still some that use their perspective to change how you look at the tattoo.

This transforming tattoo is an excellent example of this. No matter which way this person’s arm is positioned, the tattoo itself stays stagnant. The change in appearance is more thanks to the shift in what the focal point of the tattoo is, changing how people view the piece of art.

The ability for a tattoo to transform into a new feature can be a great way for artists to make fantastical tattoos even more unique. That’s what this artist did with this tattoo.

Even in its more neutral position, when the arm is bent, the creature here is pretty freighting. With its big glassy eyes and sharp fingertips, the creature seems pretty unnerving. Once the arm is extended, it reveals a mouthful of what looks like a bunch of frog eggs.

We’ve seen a lot of insects on a joint like an elbow or knee that spread their wings when the joint is open. This tattoo turns that on its head.

Rather than sticking to this general pattern, the artist opted to invert it. This time, when the joint is extended, the outer wings close. Further, both versions show the insects with their wings spread, in some capacity. The human face adds a touch of surrealism to the tattoo.

The deep sea is home to a number of alarming creatures, as we’ve stated. One of the most recognizable is the one shown in this tattoo: the anglerfish.

These fish have a small light hanging in front of their face. This lures in their dinner so they can take a bite! This tattoo pretty aptly shows the fish, even if it’s slightly personified. Once this person stands up, everyone can see the anglerfish for what it is, a creature with plenty of sharp teeth.

Seeing a tattoo move and transform as the person who has it moves is mesmerizing enough. Adding surprises only increases the wow factor the tattoo holds.

This transforming tattoo uses a fairly basic design. It’s placed inside of the elbow and when the wearer extends or bends their elbow, the jaw opens and closes. The bonus that this tattoo added is when the jaws are open, the viewer can also finally see the smaller fish trapped inside.

This tattoo is incredibly creative and challenges the limits of a transforming tattoo. After all, it manages to blend two seemingly opposite images into one.

As this person is posed in the first image, the tattoo shows a delicately detailed butterfly using black and gray tones. Once they fully extend their arm, the hidden area of the tattoo is on display. Not only does the face differ starkly against the butterfly but the use of a different color palette as well.

This is one of the most dramatic transformations that we’ve seen so far. This is largely thanks to the way that the tattoo changes shape between these two positions.

The smaller tattoo shows when the person’s knee is bent which makes the fish fairly round. As soon as this person stands up, the tattoo changes completely. This includes the fish extending into an elongated shape that takes up the majority of their leg. Plus, it uses surprising design elements like windows to stand out.

The octopus is an interesting creature. Not only are they interesting creatures aesthetically but they’ve caught people’s attention for unique functions and their high intelligence.

This tattoo sets out to capture all of the strangest features of the octopus and even add a few. For instance, the tentacles can be spooky but extra eyes are a whole new level of unsettling. The extended image is only more unsettling on top of that.

This tattoo goes further beyond the insect tattoos that we’ve seen so far. This is because the tattoo is hiding a complete transformation.

At first glance, you might see this tattoo and expect to see some interesting wings hidden beneath the surface. Once this tattoo is one full view, however, the showcased feature is clearly displayed as a detailed and spooky skull. With the use of looser lines and more curves, the skull is unique in its own right too.

There are certain items that we associate with their movement. For instance, a folding razor opening to reveal its use is more recognizable than a closed one.

That means that this subject is a natural choice when you want to transform a tattoo with movement. No matter how this person positions their arm, the razor is open. However, moving from a fully bent elbow to a fully extended one has the same movement as the hinge of the razor. It’s an impressive perspective!

This tattoo is a little more subtle in its transformative nature. It doesn’t rely on abstract or unsettling imagery and it isn’t as obvious as spreading wings.

This person’s tattoo starts on their arm as a black bar. When they bring their arms to their sides, this connects to the tattoo on their back. As a result, the branch with leaves stretches across the entire back of this person’s upper body. Even apart, though, these tattoos stand alone well.

It seems difficult to create a tattoo that will transform when you move if you aren’t starting on a joint. An elbow or knee can obscure and reveal components easily.

On the other hand, this tattoo is solely on this person’s upper back. The tattoo still transforms with movement, though, when the person shrugs. As they do, the wings move, making it seem like it’s taking flight. The realistic design of the phoenix plays a large part in pulling this effect off!

When it comes to video games, it can be hard to choose the tattoo that will represent what you want it to. This is partially because games, as a concept, are kinetic rather than trapped in a single pose.

This person seemed to have found the answer to this by creating a tattoo that seems to move. Unlike most video game tattoos, this tattoo shows Pac-Man both with his mouth open and closed, depending on how the person’s hand is positioned.