It’s All an Illusion: Mirrored Chair Warps Reality
Alone in a dark room, this unusual mirrored chair reflects its surroundings and blends into its background. When approached, however, it comes awake and alive, animated by lights than turn the reflective surfaces into a series of transparent voids, filled with a simple set of infinite-depth optical illusions.
Definitely designed as a concept piece, this would still be amazing as a household furniture object should it ever go into full production. A combination of acrylic, mirror film, ultrasonic sensors, LED lights, custom electronics and code make this odd little marvel a working reality.
As the video illustrates, the chair pulses with increased urgency – like a racing heartbeat – when someone walks toward it, and finally settles on a full-throttle, all-on setting as the person gets close enough.
The Affinity Chair’s creator Ben Alun-Jones, a designer and qualified engineer who studied at the Royal College of Art, describes the experience of how we see this piece:
“Born out of an attempt at the impossible, the Affinity chair explores our relationship with light and space. When alone, the chair merges into the background becoming almost invisible as it cloaks itself in its environment. However when approached, the chair wakes, becoming transparent, revealing hidden depths and creating an almost infinite space beneath. As the sitter comes closer to the chair, the chair’s heart rate increases reminding us that even though it wants to escape, it is firmly and almost painfully stuck in front of us.”
About Ben Alun-Jones
Ben Alun-Jones is now a cofounder of Unmade. “Unmade was born in 2014 with a mission to use the power of technology to transform an apparel industry that was stuck in the post-industrial past. To deliver apparel, on-demand – at scale. Where the industry can design, sell – then make. Custom-made, not mass-produced. Sustainable not disposable. Forget ready-made clothes. This is about ever-ready production.”
