Last year, Samsung brought the “Look At Me” app, first developed in Korea, to Canada. It partnered with Autism Speaks Canada to locate hundreds of worthy families who would receive free Samsung tablets loaded with the app. For this year’s Autism Awareness Month, Samsung’s “#WhoEyeAm” campaign will not only see it donate a further 500 tablets through Autism Speaks, but give a glimpse into how technology lets kids with autism pursue their passions.

Niam Jain is a 13-year-old boy living with autism who discovered a passion and remarkable talent for painting. Niam’s story is being told in videos showing him working and interacting with his family using Look at Me and are being shared through social, on digital boards and at Samsung Experience Stores in Canada. While it’s nice to see how Samsung’s app continues to help kids with autism, it also shows who they are is defined by more than “having autism” through the things they excel at, making the work Samsung is doing that much more effective (and human).

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At an event launching his gallery at TIFF, Niam’s mom told the crowd it was hard to accept that he’ll never go to college to study art, but maybe he doesn’t need it: he’s learned many of his techniques by looking up videos of famous artists on YouTube, combining them to create his own style.

To kick off Autism Awareness Month, over 19,000 landmarks around the world will be basked in blue light as part of “Light It Up Blue.” Niam’s gallery will move to Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto this evening, and his art will be displayed both on the ground and on the screens overhead, in addition to demos of Look at Me.

If you miss it, don’t worry, because Samsung will be displaying the art on digital screens across the country later on this month. By tweeting out a message of support using the #WhoEyeAm and #LIUB hashtags, it will be displayed on the screens with a piece of Niam’s art auto-selected and featured alongside it. However, it’s worth getting to see the art in person, if you can: Niam paints layers onto the canvas, then scratches parts of them away to reveal what’s underneath, which represents what he’s feeling inside and how it may be different from how the rest of the world sees him.

Credits:

Brand: Samsung Canada
Creative agency: Cheil Canada
Experiential: Mosaic
Media: Starcom
PR: North Strategic