"What it is, it isn't."...

Photos by Lisa Klappe.

What capture me the most is the title of this project: " What it is, it isn't." beside the image of awkward looking cabinet, of course. Then, I realized the text was taken from 'Alice in Wonderland', which is written by Lewis Carroll and this project by Ontwerpduo get its inspiration from it.

What it is, it isn't.
'If I had a world of my own,
everything would be nonsense.
Nothing would be what it is,
because everything would be what it isn't.
And, contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be.
And what it wouldn't be, it would.
You see?'
- Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.

To describe the work better, these are exact text from Ontwerpduo:
'Objects are how we perceive them to be. Our minds make things what they are and for us this is reality. Think of a branch hanging in the water. We see, with the refraction of light, the branch under the waterline in a different angle. But we know that in reality the shape of this branch is different. We learned how to see the world.

What if there was an instrument which would change the world into something that we find strange? And better, what if this instrument can also change it back?

Does the world really look how we think it is, or does the world look like we want it to be? This question can be asked by looking at this project, with or without this particular instrument.

I worked with the refraction of light as a basic principal for a new form language. I designed a different world, a strange world. In this new world there still is a possibility to go back to the world we know.

'Showing the world for what it isn't, or is it?'

With the instrument it is possible to reshape objects, spaces and architecture.'

Photos by Lisa Klappe.

Photos by Lisa Klappe.

(Click for a clearer view).

Project details:
date:                       06.2008
commissioned by: Ontwerpduo
type:                      limited edition
material:               wood, pewter, polyurethane
dimensions:          instrument 140 x 70 x 70 cm, cupboard 200 x 95 x 50 cm
photo's:                 product, scale model, sketch from lens and product trough lens

a+.  ontwerpduo  
a+.  lisa klappe   via   ricarch