How to really confuse your party guests.: zestyping

How to really confuse your party guests.

At last, here's the pictorial exposé of that picture of a rather normal-looking room i posted a few weeks ago. To recap: here's that normal-looking room —

And here are its creators:

The way this all got started was that metamouse and i were sitting around at dinner chatting about what to do for the upcoming room-to-room party. We went through a whole bunch of ideas for room themes. And then — you know how, sometimes when you're bored, you look up and imagine what it would be like if gravity turned upside down and you got to walk around on the ceiling? (Does everyone have this daydream?) Anyway, we both mentioned it at the same time, and then it dawned on us that we could make it happen. Or a variant, anyway. I think sideways actually works better than upside-down, because then you can integrate real people into the scene in strange ways.

Here's a nice shot of the ceiling. (Note the sock hanging off the table — a stroke of genius due to my co-conspirator, metamouse.)

Some photos of various people enjoying the room:

How to Defy Gravity in Ten Easy Steps

Step 1. Get an empty room. (This party happened at a fortuitous time: i was just about to move into a new single, and the previous occupant had moved out, leaving me with a completely empty room to work with. And in the co-ops, you can do whatever you want to your room. I love living in a co-op!)

Step 2. Paint the entire room white — including the floor.

Step 3. Paint a window on the floor, just for fun. Then let the paint dry overnight. (I used electrical tape to make the window frame and bars.)

Step 4. Bring in a couch, nail up a rug on the wall, and hang a table over it (we used monofilament thread from the hardware store).

Step 5. Add a poster and a light switch on the ceiling for effect. (We also threw in a fake power outlet mounted sideways on the far wall, which you can see in the first picture up top. The other outlet in that picture, which looks much too high to reach, damages the effect — i should have painted it white.)

Step 6. Reinstall the curtain rod and tack up the drapes to make them hang sideways. Stick some stuff to the table in a suggestive manner.

Step 7. Nail a trash bin high up in a corner of the room, and arrange some trash around it. "Lean" a broom against the ceiling (again using monofilament thread).

Step 8. Add a bookshelf and fill it with books. Also add an end table and hang a lamp on it.

Step 9. Suspend a ceiling lamp and its cord so it "hangs" sideways out of the opposite wall into the middle of the room. (Unfortunately, we don't have a good picture of this.)

Step 10. And the coup de grâce — affix a chair high on the wall (using metal L-brackets). This one change suddenly added a whole new level of vertigo. Standing in the room began to feel like floating overhead.

Step 11. Cackle evilly. Or giggle uncontrollably. Or both.

The whole thing took two days (one day for painting, one day for arranging everything else). Hope you enjoyed this as much as we did. This project really made me want to do crazy art installations for a living.

Deleted comment

thewebguy

March 24 2005, 18:50:47 UTC 14 years ago

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haha that's awesome
emo shirts

jackola

14 years ago

More Expand

Wow!

kitara

February 22 2005, 05:53:47 UTC 14 years ago

I highly support you doing crazy art installations for a living.

This is incredibly cool. I wish I could see it in person!

Re: Wow!

davedash

March 24 2005, 18:07:15 UTC 14 years ago

Cool, I think I saw this before... but the pics must not have loaded... this is cool. Saw it on boing boing, I think.

kamegoro

February 22 2005, 06:22:38 UTC 14 years ago

You rock my world!

hukuma

February 22 2005, 06:45:01 UTC 14 years ago

Looking at the original photos, the broom & trash were the things I found the most unbelievable.

jilflirt

February 22 2005, 08:58:06 UTC 14 years ago

There was a clothing store in NYC which had an entire store hanging upside down from the ceiling in white sculpture. I remember thinking that was so cool. Now I really wish I had made it over to see your room that night.

rebbyribs

February 23 2005, 01:04:23 UTC 14 years ago

Neat! I wish I'd gotten to see either in person. It must be an incredibly disorienting experience.

NYC store

Anonymous

Re: NYC store

arT IS a diRty joB buT someBody'S got To dO IT

torsvik

February 22 2005, 10:34:57 UTC 14 years ago

I swear, Ping, if you start doing art for a living - Ill spend one year of my life and join you.
Let me know some months in advance so that I can gather up some money and quit my current job.

Re: arT IS a diRty joB buT someBody'S got To dO IT

zestyping

February 22 2005, 19:23:39 UTC 14 years ago

You're tempting me.

Didn't you say it would be a waste of my talents or something?

anemone

February 22 2005, 19:34:30 UTC 14 years ago

That's so cool! I suspected something like that was up with the pictures, but the sock hanging off the table kinda threw me.

whiskeypants

February 23 2005, 01:16:29 UTC 14 years ago

anemone linked this, and i'm pretty amazed. great work, ping!

nanomonkey

February 23 2005, 03:00:33 UTC 14 years ago

Wow!

I miss the co-ops so much now. That's amazing. You should wear a gecko or fly costume and hang out on the wall for some of the pics.

Well Done!

February 23 2005, 04:29:39 UTC 14 years ago

This is such a fun trick! I really liked the trash extras and chair. It put it over the top! You have me thinking now of city-wide anti-gravity projects...

Anita
mobilegirl.blogspot.com

pigglet27

February 23 2005, 16:14:06 UTC 14 years ago

This is awesome! so cool!

littlelotus79

February 25 2005, 04:16:04 UTC 14 years ago

That's really amazing! So cool !

troymccluresf

February 25 2005, 16:38:33 UTC 14 years ago

Wow, well done!

democritus

February 25 2005, 18:24:52 UTC 14 years ago

So very cool. Great job!

pricciar

February 25 2005, 18:47:56 UTC 14 years ago

That is the best thing ever. I am still confused by all of the pictures because they make no sense at all. Which makes the whole project perfect.

pat

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