We’re working with Machine Histories to fabricate the furniture that we have designed for our lobby renovation project in downtown LA. In these photos the Machine Histories guys are applying PVC edge banding to our benches. By painting each piece then applying edge banding, we get a two-tone color scheme with a durable plastic edge to protect the faces that people will eventually be sitting on. The holes in each profile are designed to accept the custom spacer that was described here

We like seeing the profiles before assembly because they’re a good document of our design intent. The piece was designed both as a monolithic form and as a set of profile curves so that each profile has a very particular, plucky kind of curvature. Each curve in the array is thought of as a springy band that we’ve attempted to coil into a loop with overlapping ends. The geometry has its own limits of plasticity and spring, a tendency to return to a set of primitive shapes in opposition to our attempts to bend it. This is a slightly different way of working than slicing up a surface model and accepting the sections, no matter what the resulting kind curvature at the scale of single slice. Here the design has as much to do with the parts as it does to do with the entire assembly.

Hidden behind the Mona Lisa’s smile is a mysterious code made of letters and numbers, according to a controversial claim by members of Italy’s High Council of Painting, Sculpture, and Sorcery.  Members of the council found that magnifying high-resolution images of the world’s most famous painting revealed hidden letters and numbers added by Leonardo.  Da Vinci, said Silvio Silvusconi, chairman and Grand Wizard of the High Council.  “To the untrained eye, the symbols are hard to discern, however, with a microscope, you can see the letters”.  Silvusconi speculated the symbols (somewhat hard to make out) could be a number of things, including Leonardo’s initials, the phrase B-I-N-G-O, or a recipe for brownies.

A more likely theory is that in an effort to thumb his nose at the Pope, the Renaissance master was actually embedding a code revealing ancient eastern techniques of Tantra.  Known as “Monato” from the Italian word “Monare” (meaning to moan), the technique created subtle sensory effects effects that confuse the central nervous system and promote an explosive reaction of great pleasure.

Obviously this discovery sheds new light on the mystery of the Mona Lisa Smile. While previous theories have speculated the woman was happily pregnant, suffering from emphysema, or awash in the intoxication of chemical inhalants, the High Council now finds it more likely that the Master’s subject was painted after a decent roll in the hay.

Dan Brown fans everywhere are said to be “greatly encouraged” by these new technical advances.