✨💝 | Happy Sinsmas / S2 Finale anniversary~

A$ap rocky and Ayo Edebiri (both wearing Chanel) at the Chanel métiers d’art show designed by Matthieu Blazy

I'm obsessed with this chair. The artist takes a flimsy hunk of injection-molded plastic that's been cost-cut to hell and back, and insists that we look at it with fresh eyes and understand its beauty. And they went about it in the most labor-intensive way I can think of.

Absolutely nothing about this design is convenient to execute in wood. Every piece is curved, most have compound curves. This is artisan craftsmanship: it's inherently slow, manual, and skilled. Notice, also, that most features of this chair must be thicker and heavier than on the plastic chairs being imitated. Injection-molded chairs can be produced in this shape in a matter of minutes with far less material at very low cost.

If these flowing, organic curves are so beautiful in polished wood, perhaps they are also beautiful in the mass-produced chairs that are far more accessible. Perhaps we should remember to admire designs that succeed enough to become ubiquitous. I don't know about you, but I'll never see injection-molded chairs the same way again.

@puppygirllaika

I agree with all of this, but YOU HAVE HIT UPON A FORGOTTEN TRUTH OF PLASTIC CHAIRS!!!!!

The standard one-piece injection molded plastic chair is referred to as a "Monobloc", literally just describing it as a single piece. The history of this chair is fascinating, and it all starts back in 1946, with the D.C. Simpson Monobloc.

Douglas Colborne Simpson was an architect mostly active in the 40's and 50's, designing a lot of classic mid-century style buildings in Vancouver, Canada(1). In 1946, as part of a government project to find new uses for materials developed for WWII, he and engineer James Donahue developed the design you see above, simply called the Monobloc(2). Unfortunately, we don't know a lot about this chair as it was only ever a prototype, and no modern examples have survived, nor have most of the records surrounding it(3). To my knowledge, we don't actually know if this was technically injection molded, or crafted some other way. We can't even be sure if it was technically the inspiration for the designs that followed, but no matter the case it has lent its name to the entire genre.

Plastics technology was simply not what it is today back in the 1940's. Most people would have had very little plastic in their homes, most likely just a few pieces of Bakelite (the first commercially viable plastic, made from a formaldehyde based resin in a Bakelizer, the best name for any industrial manufacturing equipment ever). Over the following few decades, however, as a wider variety of plastics were both developed and came down in price to the point of commercial viability, the concept of the plastic chair was revisited, and the first folks to revisit it were Helmut Batzner, in 1964, and Joe Colombo, in 1965.

This, is the Bofinger chair, Batzner's design:

The elements of D.C.Simpson's Monobloc were pretty alien compared to todays mass-manufactured plastic chairs, but here we start to see some more modern elements come into play. The first thing you probably notice is the front legs, which have that characteristic visible 90 degree bend in them for added rigidity, plus a much more comfortably leaned back and slightly scoop-shaped seat. We also see much more support in the back rest, with broad triangles allowing for a more efficient use of materials without losing back support.

Similar to Simpson, Batzner was not an industrial designer, but an architect, and this chair had a very specific purpose. Batzner and his team designed it as part of a project to build a new theater in Karlsruhe, Germany, which required a large amount of additional seating which could be easily packed away into storage or distributed around the theaters rooms by the staff (4). As such, it was designed to be both lightweight and stackable, so several of them could be moved by one person, and they could be stored compactly. This piece of furniture was a huge hit a the theater, and was so popular that 120,000 units would ultimately be manufactured and sold around the world, with each one taking just 5 minutes to produce (4).

Around the same time, Joe Colombo enters the scene with this:

Colombo was an artist in several mediums who, after taking over his families appliance company in the 50's, made the shift towards architecture and interior design, and started designing a wide array of trend-setting furniture(5). The chair shown above is known as the Universale (sometimes referred to as the Chair Universal 4867), designed in 1965. This chair differs pretty greatly from the ones that came after it, it many ways it represents a different path that could have been taken, but it's also very widely referenced as an inspiration for what is broadly considered the origin of the white plastic chair the world over.

Enter: the Fauteuil 300

This is, arguably, the first iteration of the white plastic chair we all know today. Designed by Henry Massonnet in 1972, the Fauteuil 300 and it's imitators are, collectively, the single most widely used piece of furniture in the entire world(6). Before that, however, it was something else entirely: works of art.

What might be hard to recognize in hindsight is that all of these chairs described so far were not everyday objects. They were on the forefront of modern design, they made use of brand new materials and manufacturing processes, and at the time they were each made, they were slick, stylish, and fairly expensive. Despite the speed at which they could be manufactured, these innovative, high-end chairs rose sharply in cost up through the early 1980's due to the sheer demand for them. They weren't cheap spare seating you stuck in the garage, they were placed at dining tables and on fine patios, and they were a wildly popular talking point. That's not to say their expense justified their artistic value, but rather that their expense and popularity was a product of their status as highly contemporary and boundary-pushing designs.

With the price of plastics declining after the 70's, the increasing accessibility of injection molding to manufacturers, and the widespread popularity of these designs, copycats proliferated rapidly, and eventually drove the price down. This era, in the 80's and 90's, is when these chairs became cheap an ubiquitous, and where they became manufactured the world over.

And here is where we reach this piece, "Plastic chair in wood", by Maarten Baas, and a piece of the history I've left out so far. The Monobloc was designed to be made out of wood. Like the the other chairs designed by Joe Colombo, like the chairs that predated the Simpson, the Monobloc was designed with the intention of using laminated plywood, but as the artists and designers behind them began to experiment with new materials they fell in love with the idea of making them from plastic, and so they did. They redesigned and redesigned until they made something that would be impossible to make in wood at a price most people could afford, but which could be made from plastic in mere minutes. The organic curves and thin profiles would take so much time, so much waste material, so much skill and effort to create if made of wood that they could never be furniture, they could only be art. Baas' chair is a perfect, beautiful reflection of that.

That, in brief, is the history of the design of the white plastic Monobloc chair, but it's not all there is to know. In fact, it's kind of just the start. I've linked my sources below, but I would strongly recommend checking out the German documentary Monobloc, by Hauke Wendler. It goes over the history, but it's far more interested with what the Monobloc means, and what it's place is in our world today. The impact it's made, the better and the worse, and what it says about us. It's fascinating, and well worth your time.

sources below.

Always fun to learn about a tumblr friends surprise special interest

We all hear about the hatemail and PVP, but this site is also unmatched for activating a trap card.

[video by stoccafisso_production. caption: fake courtesy machine]

ICE is coming to a city near you: things you should know from a tumblrina on the ground in the twin cities

i know i am usually pretty hehe haha on this app and here to generally mess around and have fun about television however, the circumstances of the last few weeks in my city and state have been truly so dire that it feels impossible to even pretend like that is an option right now. and i like to help so here is what i know:

yesterday, january 12th, border patrol commander greg bovino gave a very weird interview to the minnesota CBS affiliate WCCO, in which he lied repeatedly but importantly noted that once they "[get] bad things off the streets, we're off to the next city." we have seen increased immigration enforcement since day 1 of the new trump administration with many cities pushing back against operations already but, as what has been highly reported, nothing as large as the scale of the current operation in MN. plus with the pushback they have received here, these freak individuals will certainly have new motivation to incite violence wherever they go. use this as a little cheat sheet to prepare yourself for when it is your turn or, to jump in to the action rn and help out our immigrant communities in MN.

WHAT MN IS DOING TO PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORS

notes for VULNERABLE/UNDOCUMENTED PEOPLE and their families

other general notes: they're arresting literally anyone in MN, citizen or not. they're harassing kids at school (minneapolis schools have allowed for children to learn from home until february 12th). they're arresting people at work. it does not matter. a lot of people here are carrying their passports and other documentation to avoid this. you don't have to give anyone your identification even when asked but unfortunately many who refuse have been met with violence. they're going into hospitals, homes, schools, businesses and they don't have warrants. of course know your rights but be aware they really don't give a fuck. they're arresting first and asking questions later.

most importantly people working for ICE and border patrol have something deeply wrong with them. they're disgusting, immoral people whose "work" will be a stain on their lives and this country until the end of time. and i can not stress this enough, they are so fucking stupid. they are not stronger than us. they are not smarter than us. they are not more righteous or justified in any of their actions and eventually the day will come that their most prized leader turns on them, dies, or both. they will never be forgiven.

with that i leave you with two videos of agents eating shit on the ice that i can't stop watching. fucking pussies.

love ya. be safe

Merry Sinsmas darling 💖

"Peggle make phone calls" has become shorthand for "fuck it, whatever" for me but no one ever knows what im talkingabout and it's also longer (longhand?)

peggle make phone calls

This is asking only about your DIRECT genetic ancestors: parents, grandparents, etc. Do not count aunts/uncles or anyone who is not related to you by blood.

We ask your questions anonymously so you don’t have to! Submissions are open on the 1st and 15th of the month.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes The Solitary Cyclist (S01E04)

things in fic I'm used to people kind of faking their way through writing about:

things I have never before seen someone fake their way through writing about, until today:

listen i have never consumed any transformers media ever in my life other than the stuff people i follow post but last night i had a dream that i was driving on the highway and there was a massive billboard with portraits of three random transformers on them with the caption of “THESE ROBOTS ARE GAY AND EVERY TIME YOU COMPLAIN WE ADD ANOTHER ONE” and the dude in the car next to me went “aw fuck gay robots” and another image of one suddenly appeared on the billboard and the dude started crying

Your dream is an accurate rendering of the transformers fandom experience

Unposted doodle #11

I decided this was too dumb to post but it still makes me laugh 😂

Customs i made :> first is a vampire and second is an elf yippee

write it out in spanish if that's the filmmaker's vision! some lines should be translated and some should be transcribed. 0 should be waved away.

for real though, if you don't translate it, you should transcribe the original language. if a bilingual viewer can understand what they're saying just from listening, then a bilingual viewer who relies on subtitles should also be able to understand those lines.

The ONLY times (speaking foreign language) should be acceptable are: 1. The language is imaginary and the viewer isn't supposed to know what is being said. (even then, I prefer the phonemes be transliterated if possible.) 2. The speech is also muffled or out of earshot and the viewer isn't supposed to know what's being said--just as if it were speaking English but too muffled to make out.

So my family has a Gay Pirate Plate.

Stay with me.

We do not know how the hell the Gay Pirate Plate was first acquired. This being a point of contention is actually pretty plot-relevant; the saga of the Gay Pirate Plate began with my grandmother and her sister, who, for some ungodly reason, both BADLY wanted the Gay Pirate Plate and believed it to be rightfully theirs.

I should back up, firstly, to establish: The Gay Pirate Plate is the cheapest, tackiest, ugliest plate in existence.

It is in no way a collector’s item. It is physically impossible for it to complement anyone’s decor, because the colors in it are garish. It’s just a ceramic plate with a gay pirate painted on it, and the painting is, this cannot be emphasized enough, extremely bad.

(How do we know the pirate is gay if he’s just posing on a plate? Listen. Fully 100% to stereotype, but he is. He is gay. There’s an energy. That pirate is a flaming homosexual. That pirate has sex with men and does it frequently. That pirate is fucking gay, all right, he just is.)

Anyway. The point is that this is an extremely cheap and ugly plate with a poorly-executed painting of pirate on it who is like a nine on the Kinsey scale.

My grandmother and her sister fought a blood feud over this plate for their entire lives. It would be on the wall in my grandma’s house, and then her sister would visit, and then it would be gone. She’d visit her sister and the plate would be on the wall and her sister would pretend it had always been there. She would steal it back, hang it up, and, when her sister visited, pretend it had always been there. This continued for DECADES.

When the sister died, the Gay Pirate Plate lived triumphantly in my grandmother’s house. And then my grandmother died. And my aunt, who had lived with her and been her carer throughout her life, rightfully inherited their house.

We visit my aunt after the funeral and stay with her for a week or two.

Me, my sister, and our dad. Her brother.

The three of us look at each other. We don’t say anything. We studiously avoid making eye contact with the Gay Pirate Plate mounted proud and ugly on the wall. We notice one another studiously avoiding looking at it. We notice one another noticing. We say nothing. We come to a silent consensus. We pack up to leave. We get in the van. Our aunt comes out to say goodbye. I loudly announce I need to use the restroom before we leave. She obviously stays outside to continue talking to my dad.

I take down the Gay Pirate Plate, stuff it under my oversized sweatshirt, go outside, and get in the van. She happily waves goodbye as we drive off.

Two days later my dad gets a phone call that opens with hysterical laughter and “You FUCKING ASSHOLE did you seriously STEAL THE PLATE–”

Anyway. The gay pirate plate lives in my dad’s house currently.

But he’s trying to get me and my sister out to visit him. And plate mounts are cheap.

The rules of Gay Pirate Plate are simple by the way.

WOE

PLATE BE UPON YE

STATUS UPDATE

I texted this image to my family at around 2am their time last night and woke up to appropriately indignant messages about theft, betrayal, etc.

nothing could have prepared me for how gay the gay pirate plate was