Clever Carving Gives Viewers Pause

March 16, 2013 12:42 AM

Distorted Wooden Cabinet Carved To Look Like Someone Hit The ‘Pause’ Button
posted by spiderskull (43 comments total)

Ok I'll go ahead and start the conversation about whether or not this is Photoshop. The only thing that bothers me is if you look at the upper right distortions, the highlights are exaggerated relative to the rest of the image. Assuming there is one light camera-right, it's hard to explain why the highlights are so pronounced in the distorted part of the cabinet and yet so soft and thin in the undistorted parts, despite being equidistant from the light source. Unless I'm missing something, the simplest explanation to me would be the use of the liquify tool.
posted by phaedon at 1:10 AM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, until I see a shot of it from a different angle I'm calling shenanigans.
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:11 AM on March 16, 2013

I'm also a little skeptical. However, it's very, very cool just as a concept, as an idea, too. If it's not real, someone should definitely make it real.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:13 AM on March 16, 2013

Hm, I'm not suspicious, because those are good points. The io9 article has comments to the same effect. On the other hand, it will apparently be on display "at the Salone del Mobile in Milan from 9 to 14 April next month," so I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
posted by spiderskull at 1:19 AM on March 16, 2013

3d printer's buggered again.

Never mind, tell 'em it's meant to be like that.
posted by Segundus at 1:35 AM on March 16, 2013 [9 favorites]

I dunno, the perspective toward the bottom would be hard to get right if you were simply altering a 2d photo of a normal cabinet.
posted by scrowdid at 1:40 AM on March 16, 2013

The other interesting part of the image is that if it was liquified, then a concerted effort was made to clean up the background.
posted by phaedon at 1:57 AM on March 16, 2013

Whats a VHS tape player?
posted by mattoxic at 2:03 AM on March 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

My reaction before the talk of shenanigans: heh, cool.

My reaction after shenanigan-talk. d'oh!, heh, cool.

My friend Ain Cocke had an art show a few years back featuring a bunch of old photos from his childhood that he had manipulated in photoshop to eliminate the figures, but leave behind the landscapes and props. So there'd be 70s era birthday photos, but no kids, and 70s picnic photos, but no picnickers. Absence is Presence or something.

I went to the opening at a gallery in DTLA and some things seemed off about the photos, but I couldn't place it.

"Dude," I said, "When did your dad ever own a Chevy station wagon?"

"He didn't," Ain said.

That was all I got. Not even a knowing smile.

Either way, it works.
posted by notyou at 2:13 AM on March 16, 2013 [6 favorites]

You'll put your eye out.
posted by Evstar at 2:14 AM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

How come there's only pictures from a single angle?
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:19 AM on March 16, 2013

Well, if it is real, then the effect won't look right from any other angle.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 2:53 AM on March 16, 2013

Lighting looks realistic to me*; I'd hazard a bright light somewhat close to the ground, pointed up towards mid-high on the cabinet. Something like one of these maybe - look at the ground shadow and sharp light cone.

Also note the deeper shadow immediately behind the pillar, bottom right, and top left of the cabinet. Particularly, the highlights are much softer on the bottom right pillar despite similar distortions - it's because they're not in the brightest part of the light cone.

* I paint models using zenithal highlights, so look at light/shadow maps a lot
posted by ArkhanJG at 3:13 AM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

It's a crappy photo, but there are enough cues there to make me think it's probably a real object. However, I don't buy the article's claim that it's hand-carved. There might have been some minor hand cleanup done, but I'm pretty sure that's 95% CNC work, and I suspect it would be somewhat less impressive in person than it is while your brain is filling in the details missing in the crappy photo.
posted by jon1270 at 3:22 AM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it's fake. All I know is it's ugly as hell. Why do people purposely make terrible stuff? Same goes for "fuzz" music.
posted by DU at 3:23 AM on March 16, 2013 [6 favorites]

Also notice that there are no doors, handles or hinges, and the grain is all horizontal. It's not a cabinet, it's a cabinet-shaped sculpture -- a solid hunk of material with no useful cavity inside.
posted by jon1270 at 3:33 AM on March 16, 2013 [7 favorites]

looking at this guys other work, I suspect it is real. Clever, interesting, but, what a headache producing piece of wood!
posted by HuronBob at 3:37 AM on March 16, 2013

It will also be a headache producing this piece of wood.
posted by Namlit at 4:15 AM on March 16, 2013

UPDATE: According to Studio Laviani the image is a rendering, however a final piece of furniture is supposed to be on display in April, so stay tuned.
posted by knapah at 4:17 AM on March 16, 2013 [7 favorites]

So yeah, CNC machine, eventually.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 4:44 AM on March 16, 2013

what a headache producing piece of wood!

That's little league shit; I've got a piece of wood that gives my wife a headache whenever I even bring up the possibility of showing it to her.

I am not actually married.
posted by nathancaswell at 5:23 AM on March 16, 2013 [19 favorites]

I have an uneasy feeling that there are various actresses - frozen in not quite static states of undress - that I might actually recognize in this form. But fine marquetry: not so much (probably an Italian thing).
posted by rongorongo at 5:27 AM on March 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

Metafilter: a solid hunk of material with no useful cavity inside.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 5:54 AM on March 16, 2013 [7 favorites]

You look inside, and it's the girl from "The Ring" staring back at you.
posted by fontor at 6:10 AM on March 16, 2013 [2 favorites]

UPDATE: According to Studio Laviani the image is a rendering, however a final piece of furniture is supposed to be on display in April, so stay tuned.

Translation: "I'll be damned, they fell for it! Everyone did! We better actually make one of these things now!"
posted by zardoz at 6:11 AM on March 16, 2013 [12 favorites]

There is nothing in my life that I could pause to get that effect.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:24 AM on March 16, 2013

It's a n image of a rendering! Wow, what's his Kickstarter campaign address?

(My eye refuses to exactly see that image, it's very disorienting for me.)
posted by Nelson at 7:48 AM on March 16, 2013

nathancaswell: "what a headache producing piece of wood!

That's little league shit; I've got a piece of wood that gives my wife a headache whenever I even bring up the possibility of showing it to her.

I am not actually married."

Will you be here all week?
posted by chavenet at 7:57 AM on March 16, 2013

Why do people purposely make terrible stuff?

In order to piss you off, DU. Clearly.
posted by cmoj at 8:01 AM on March 16, 2013 [3 favorites]

Thank you, odinsdream! I was mentioning that painter to a friend when we were talking about this cabinet, but I couldn't think of his name. Much obliged.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:19 AM on March 16, 2013

If it was really hand-carved, that's damn impressive. I'd wager it's done with 3D printing, like Robert Lazzarini's skulls and stuff. Still pretty cool.
posted by hydrophonic at 8:24 AM on March 16, 2013

I had no problem believing this was hand-carved. I mean, it would take so long to do you would‘ve had to start work on it back when VHS was still a thing...
posted by Jughead at 8:33 AM on March 16, 2013

Hey folks, the studio has confirmed that the picture is a computer rendering, not a real object. Knapah poi ted this out like a dozen comments ago, so I'm not sure why we're debating this still. They claim they're going to make a real one, but they haven't done so yet. The picture is not of a thing that exists.
posted by Scientist at 10:03 AM on March 16, 2013

Wait, I totally saw a debate that apparently nobody is having. I hereby retract my shitty comment. Time to go recalibrate my brain.
posted by Scientist at 10:05 AM on March 16, 2013

We're working on the debate right now and we should have it ready for your comments at a later date.
posted by ODiV at 10:08 AM on March 16, 2013 [9 favorites]

DU: "Why do people purposely make terrible stuff? Same goes for "fuzz" music."

Let's let Davie Allan explain it.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:14 AM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

So this is purportedly designed to deceive the viewer, but in fact is designed to deceive the reader. How clever!
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:33 PM on March 16, 2013 [1 favorite]

DU: "Why do people purposely make terrible stuff?

Because for some reason the universes that only contained stuff that you like didn't survive natural selection?
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 12:37 PM on March 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

Why do people purposely make terrible stuff?

To get featured on BoingBoing?
posted by Thorzdad at 1:03 PM on March 16, 2013 [4 favorites]

Ten bucks says it never materializes.
posted by user92371 at 2:22 PM on March 16, 2013

But that's how vaporware works.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:10 PM on March 16, 2013

Why do people purposely make terrible stuff?

Dunno, why'd you make this comment?
posted by shakespeherian at 8:09 AM on March 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

Kind of reminds me of the series of twisted works by Wim Delvoye.
posted by Sublimity at 7:13 PM on March 17, 2013