Les Sugus

What if your dishes dissolved to liquid after you used them a set amount of times? What if your furniture fell apart after a certain number of uses? A team of creators answered that last question with the DRM Chair, a self-destructing seat that can only be sat on a limited number of times.

The DRM Chair looks sturdy enough, but each time someone sits it in, it triggers a sensor and makes a clicking noise as it counts the uses. After eight people have applied their tushes to it, a lick of smoke starts to emanate from the joints. The joints then melt down and the chair falls into a pile of parts, much like a furniture version of a "Mission: Impossible" tape player.

The DRM chair was created over the course of 48 hours for a global project called The Deconstruction. The Deconstruction is described as "a game about re-thinking the world as we know it, taking it apart, making a few adjustments, then putting it back together a little awesome-er." Teams participate by thinking up and building projects in a short time frame.

I would say the DRM Chair makes the world a little awesome-er. It should provoke at least a few thoughts about the nature of DRM and how it gets applied to less tangible items, like songs, ebooks, and software. I expect consumers would be up in arms if their furniture self-destructed after a limited number of uses. It would be an awesome party trick, though.

(Via Hexus)