remembrance coffee table book literal

Like sweetened coffee creamer, it was only a matter of time until someone fused this quintessential pair of household objects into a single hybrid furniture object. Talk about a conversation piece!

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remembrance coffee table book footstool

Forget the photo albums and coffee table books of old – now you can have your coffee and eat the coffee cake too, without dropping crumbs or spilling on your favorite family photographs (or costly copy of some picture-rich volume).

remembrance coffee table book opening

Flip through enough pages and you find yet another dimension to the design: a trunk-like secret storage space. The design is both functional and tongue-in-cheek, a joke you get instantly at first glance.

remembrance coffee table book inside

Mitch Steinmetz of the NMU School of Art & Design combined these classics using Wood, Stainless Steel, Vinyl and Denim Cloth. His creation recognizes the “coffee table [as] the center of any living room: a place for conversation, gathering, and storage [while] the photo album preserves memories, giving life to past events and emotions.”

remembrance coffee table book

As such, “Remembrance combines the social interaction of family gatherings with the nostalgia and enjoyment of remembering … it creates new memories while simultaneously cataloging old ones.”

The piece was featured in Northern Michigan University School of Art and Design’s first exhibition in Milan at Salone. Their show was called Transessience.

From the show’s description:

The dictionary defines the word transient as not lasting, enduring, or permanent. Essence is defined as the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature or features. Together, these values provide a range of responses that stimulate desires for function and change. Transiessence evokes the emotional relationship between people and objects while proposing new modes of sustainability through interaction. These interactions have been interpreted and defined in a variety of ways that create a new sense of awareness that promote adaptation in regards to consumption, trends, personal identity, and memory.