Plato argued that a chair is once removed from reality, and any depiction of a chair is another step removed from reality. Plato thought this was pretty uncool, and used the chair as an example for all objects. In the end, if I’m reading him correctly, he would sooner see us have conversations than write novels or plays where conversations occur. Actually, he wouldn’t want to see us have conversations, he’d like to have one with us. Well, as I’m neither a philosopher nor a statesman, I guess I’m a sophist. For example, I think these miniature chairs 3D printed by Maximo Riera are pretty cool.
Now that’s a whale of a chair.
I wonder what Plato thought about really bad jokes?
The Spanish artist, in order to recreate his beautifully distinct chairs at a Lilliputian size, has used selective laser sintering, a 3D printing method utilizing nylon, which he claims provided him with much greater detail than other forms of 3D printing.
Maximo says that he is “… always trying new techniques and materials. From the brainstorming, I have the intention for creating something new and different. Art always has to break boundaries and being an artist means that you have to take risks.”
I think the chair above is my favorite. Merely because it’s, to me, quasi-Lovecraftian.
Now that’d be a conversation. Plato and Cthulhu intellectually duking it out over a few pints.
Then again, considering Lovecraft’s anti-Semitism, my guess is Plato would flip the table and wrestle the creature to the ground. Or maybe he’d just get up and leave. Actually, forget all that. There’s no bar in the world large enough to hold Cthulhu. Anyway, Maximo’s miniature chairs remain pretty cool, even if they’re nothing more than objets d’art.
