Solar Machine Spins Sunlight-Shaped Furniture

Mike writes "Austrian designers mischer'traxler have created a solar powered machine that makes an incredible array of furnishings that vary based on how much sunlight it receives over the course of a day. Titled 'The Idea of a Tree,' the machine spins spools of thread into stools, benches, containers, and lamp shades that wax and wane as the available sunlight shifts. Furniture created during cloudy winter days will be wrapped more slowly, causing it to be darker in color, thicker, and smaller than pieces created during the sun-soaked summer months."

Comments

And - the punch line is?

[us7892]

So what.

some fugly furniture

[OrangeMonkey11]

interesting use of solar energy, but these are some ugly looking furniture

Re:some fugly furniture

[VeNoM0619]

I know, at first it looked like a curious idea...After looking at the pictures, I thought WTF? That's not furniture, that's like grass wrapped around a log.

what kind of thread and resin is used in this?

[Anonymous Coward]

looks like an interesting DIY project, anyone know the specifics of the thread and resin used to do something like this?

Re:what kind of thread and resin is used in this?

[camperdave]

Here's a much more interesting and useful DIY project.

Where's the gimmick tag?

[TranscendentalAnarch]

So they hooked a machine to a solar power source whose varied power output results in slightly different products... I guess the little kids in africa and china making overpriced furnishings with imperfections, err, personality... can now be replaced.

OR...

[mcfatboy93]

you could plug it into an outlet and make more consistent furniture and make it all the time.

Re:No money in it.

[Wee_Bit_Hazed]

They will probably sell each piece for $500.

Re:No money in it.

[TheLostSamurai]

The machine cranks out 1 piece per day, a maximum of 365 pieces per year. At that rate, how many years does it take to recoup the cost of the machine, with at least $500 worth of solar panels?

And of course anything that doesn't bring a profit isn't worth doing.

This machine doesn't make furniture, it churns out 1 piece of sunlight created functional art a day, which could easily sell for way more than the price of the machine. I'm not saying I would pay for it, but value is in the eye of the beholder.

Re:Very interesting

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Its machine art. Not practical, but conceptual. Nature's creations are highly dependent on the surrounding climate. Our human creations tend to be the same regardless of the weather ( with a few exceptions we take great care in creating an ideal environment for anything whose quality would depend upon the surrounding climate). So this is a mixture between the two. Something human made that depends upon the environment on purpose.

I'm not buying the furniture, but its interesting. If I were ever to find myself in some alternate reality where we lacked our giant automated factories, but still had small machines. This would be pretty useful. We could adapt it to make clothing that was appropriate for the current weather. Then we could trade the clothing for muskets, whiskey and dvds.

Re:Very interesting

[stonewallred]

I would not make a machine like this, nor do i think it is a economic based thing. It is art, pure and simple. I thought it was neat, and pretty interesting, but it does not compare to a good painting or killer song. YMMV.

Re:No money in it.

[fiannaFailMan]

Seriously, this is more a piece of performance art than a manufacturing device.

And...?

Day 1, lesson 1 at critic's school. You cannot criticise something, be it a movie, book, song, painting, or a solar powered machine, for failing to do something it does not set out to do.

Was there anything in TFA that suggested that this thing was setting out to be an automated cash cow for mass producing furniture? I didn't see it.

Spools to stools

[AaronParsons]

the machine spins spools ... into stools

My dog does this... he tears apart yarn, eats it, and eventually it comes out the other end.

Re:No money in it.

[Geoffrey.landis]

The machine cranks out 1 piece per day, a maximum of 365 pieces per year. At that rate, how many years does it take to recoup the cost of the machine, with at least $500 worth of solar panels?

Well, if the pieces sell for fifty dollars each, you've recouped the cost of $500 worth of solar panels in ten days.

Uh, is this a trick question?

Re:No money in it.

[fiannaFailMan]

Sure you can.

Can what? Criticise it for failing to do something it does not set out to do? I disagree.

You can criticise it for trying to do something stupid that should never have been attempted in the first place.

That's a different thing from criticising it for failing to do something it does not set out to do.

"Your atom bomb killed everyone!" Valid criticism.

"Your atom bomb does not take me to work in style while returning 30MPG!" Invalid criticism.

Re:No money in it.

[Anenome]

Anything relying on commercial success for its continued existence needs to make a profit, yes.

This is a step forward in furniture in the sense that we one day want to have machines making everything for us from freely available energy and materials--all the way down to bio-engineering plants which can grow into customized shapes. Can you imagine a plant which grows the shape of a couch frame out of, say, oak? Bamboo and seaweed have super-fast growing genes. Why not create a way to grow the frame of a house rather than cut and shape it. Let nature do the work.