Tool's Life

So you think that a fork is for eating, a comb for combing your hair, an alarm clock for waking you up...
But is that really all there is to these objects?

In Tool's Life, by Minim++ (Motoshi Chikamori, Kyoko Kuno and Yasuaki Kakehi), a set of steel objects on a table are illuminated from above so that the objects cast long shadows across it. Touching the objects triggers modification in the shadows that reveal their true characters: the holes in scissor handles become eyes, or the shadow of a handle squirms away like a snake.

This toy-room of projected images offers a contrast to much of the high-tech interaction expected for much of Japan's creations. Instead, we are dependent upon exploratory movements and accidental discovery.

The work questions our new "simulation culture" in which media output, in changing the things it sees, creates multiple realities.

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