40 Curious Things To Cheer You Up, As Shared By This Dedicated Instagram Account
Pictures shared by the Concepttalk Instagram account probably cannot be put under one category, except with the help of the account’s description of having something interesting and unexpected about them.
This first and foremost leads to things revealing their unexpected side by playful presentation brought to the viewer’s attention. Something to be experienced and enjoyed!
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Fluid Rugs, By Faig Ahmed
Oops, put the other kind of mushrooms on pizza 🤦♀️
Load More Replies...Snoopy Bike, Taiwan
This looks like it belongs in Planet Snoopy in King's Dominion (doswell, VA theme park)
The account Concepttalk has 370K followers on Instagram and despite its short description, the link provided to the website of a curator leads us to one possible clue to a certain theme, which could be applied at least to some part of the pictures from Concepttalk. While the former is meant for “retro lovers”, the latter has a lot to do with it as well.
According to the study Retro - The Culture of Revival, by Elizabeth E. Guffey, retro is a movement which beginning gets associated with the rehabilitation of works by Beardsley, and the movement of Art Nouveau in general. Even though revivals or enhanced interest in a specific historic period did happen in the past, according to the author, this movement was different.
Plastic Chair In Wood, By Maarten Baas
Is this supposed to be wood chair made out of plastic or plastic chair made out of wood? Can't tell 😕
It's a chair out of wood but made to look like the plastic ones
Load More Replies...Awesome an organic icon to cheap plastic chairs you can use for a few months. If anyone gets this reserve the right to take it back if they don't treat it with the respect a well crafted wood furniture it is. 💯😁
Does the left rear leg have a hinge and a trick mechanism to mimic the plastic one? cause.. It should fall backward and to the side when the rear leg collapses.
Want. WANT. Those ubiquitous plastic chairs are so comfy, yet so tacky and cheap. This is perfection
DIY, Vintage TV Cat Beds
It looks like an expensive piece of cat furniture that fits into the decor! Very nice!
Better than 99.999999999999% of what's on NatGeo-- or any of the Discovery channels nowadays. How, exactly, is Naked and Afraid teaching anything? How is Duck Hunters history? How is a bunch of people playing mean pranks music?
Load More Replies...The previous owners of my apartment left a 1980's electronic organ. I gutted it and turned it into a cat house. Not yet totally finished, but she likes it.
Lava Lamp Nails, By Liampeternails
Not moving tho, and the light probably is shining on it (not included).
Load More Replies...Okay, I'm not a fan the long nails/extreme nail art trend, but these are awesome.
I am ashamed to say I really like these. Of course, I've always wanted a lava lamp.
If they were glow in the dark that would be AWESOME!!!
Signage Concept By Yuki Matsueda
It means you are required to sprint from the elevator
Load More Replies...I want to nap on it, then scream until a soft can-opener gets me down and gives me tuna.
Load More Replies...Based on interpretation by Guffey, the revival of art and design of the late nineteenth century suggests a unique tendency - a “popular thirst for the recovery of earlier, and yet still modern.”
The author suggests that the most potent connotation of 'retro' that tends to be overlooked is its fundamental shift in the popular relationship with the past. When it comes to its object, it focuses on the recent past, rather than the Middle Ages or Antiquity.
When it comes to its attitude or the way of looking at this recent past, the author describes it as half-ironic, half-longing, detached, and “attempting to come to terms with Modernity’s ideas, as well as its boundaries and even its mortality.”
However, Guffey warns against dismissing the appeal of these tendencies as simply looking backwards or merely a series of stylistic gestures and suggests that it is better understood as a kind of subversion of “looking backwards in order to go forwards.”
Dad Hacks
Damn. I bet my dad wishes he'd done this with my brother all those years ago.
Alconbury Mcdonald’s
Alconbury, UK. Originally a 'space-age' computerised-ordering restaurant later taken over by McD's. Demolished 2008
I remember when they have happy meals in UFO saucer shaped containers! Reminds of that.
There's a flying saucer house going up the front of Signal Mountain in Chattanooga, TN. It used to be really cool when I went to high school around that area (a little more than 20 years ago). My husband and I took a day-trip there a couple months ago and unfortunately the house hasn't been taken care of very well over the years. It wasn't a new house when I was in high school, but it's sad that such a neat place was kind of let go. It's actually built up on "stilts", like 4 poles maybe 15 feet high, and the only way in or out is by lowering a staircase down from the bottom of the house. I always wanted to go see the inside when I was a teen in the 90's!
Circular? So regular looking burgers but they called them UFO burgers as a gimick?? I mean they're usually always flat and squished anyway, at least in the US
Load More Replies...Bread Knife
This is from Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. It is fictional. The words over the picture are called "subtitles."
That's what I thought... already been thought of.
Load More Replies...Oh Trillian. You haven’t figured out that you have to deal with one side being cold, on the first slice.
Naw, that side gets toasted when you cut off the heal
Load More Replies...This is actually from the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and has yet to be invented irl as far as I know 😂
This isn't a still from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie?
Disco Chair, By La.lland
I had a blank space on top of one of my bookcases, so I did the obvious and put three different sized disco balls up there and called it a day. It actually looks neato and was pretty cheap to do.
While playfulness and the lighthearted wit of the pictures also bring Postmodernism and a fun rewording of “Less is more” to “Less is bore” by Robert Venturi to mind.
The movement from 1970 to 1990, was known for shattering established ideas about design and art and its style associated with a mix of various seemingly opposing elements that make it “visually thrilling, multifaceted" and defying definition.
According to the study by V&A, such irreverence, which is meant to criticize purely functional design or simply to cheer up the viewers with some lighthearted wit, is among the movement’s main characteristics.
🐸 A Place For Meditation
I don't know why, but I'm concerned that this is insulting and demeaning to frogs. I don't even like frogs!
The frog eats your poop. I would imagine poop would be gross, but maybe the frog likes it.
Sure you can. The eyes go in either side of the tank. Also, the tank is slimmer to accommodate the eyes better.
Load More Replies...This is Kremit. The cousin that Kermit's family doesn't speak about much.
Tom Pearcy. Ouse River, Yorkshire
In Oregon, too. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQlFhtO86g )
Load More Replies...Reminds me of one of my favorite books as a kid, "James and the Giant Peach"
Survival skills training. How to improvise a makeshift canoe from a neighbors prize winning huge pumpkin.
Many designers of the things from the pictures shared by Concepttalk seem to have figured out one recipe for escaping the routine of a purely functional take on things and processes to use them for a different purpose than they were created for or expected to be used by many.
Also, they add elements that have no function at all except for exaggerating and embodying the remote associations with certain daily objects in a dream-like or somewhat fun way, possibly surprising the creators themselves as their perception gets caught up in this sort of play.
So now, please feel free to participate by scrolling the list and sharing your thoughts in the comments!
Lucky Cat
"Quagmire?! No one's seen you for weeks..."
Load More Replies...Pay $7.99 to open. In two days or less, it will already be filled with gems again, and will need emptying. Luckily, it's only $7.99!
Human Sized Soda Machine, By Ogilvy Agency
Really hope that's just water... Although that would be pretty cool if it was carbonated too! It would tickle!
Early 80s Phone Typography
You kids don't know how good you have it... Back in my day, we didn't think about q or z, we had lmnop and that was good enough...
Load More Replies...OMG! I had this phone! It was as fantastic to use as you think it would be! :D
https://www.gilandroyprops.tv/products/beige-phone-with-large-orange-buttons
Photo: Ben Avraham
Criminal Offensive Side-Eye
Load More Replies...80s Telephone
I had a Snoopy phone with the handset of Snoops and a cradle of his doghouse.
I had a Snoopy phone when I was a kid. I thought it was pretty cool.
"It Would Be Fun To Listen To The Product Designer Of This… Multi Gadget."
Me too! I was going to say good idea, we should be able to use our smartphones as a mouse by now…
Load More Replies...Not bad. Looks like it still functions as a mouse when opened, too.
I see the fun. But other than my computer geek husband. I don't know anyone who would use it.
I have one, but instead of a calculator, it's a a phone, and it works :)
Rug Rover Interior, By Kingkennedyrugs
No entirely to my taste, but someone has gone to a great deal of trouble to fit this, and done a good job too. Kudos for that.
Wouldn't work here; we get too much snow and rain. It looks really cozy though.
That's really cool. Or maybe uncomfortable. But it's really cool. And I feel a little uncomfortable.
Payphone
Wile E Coyote is there somewhere, rubbing his hands together, waiting, waiting...
If I'm remembering correctly, this is actually a photo from a Japanese photographer, taken in Hokkaido, I believe.
You should be able to tell by the style of that phone
Load More Replies...The snowfall is pretty stunning, but I don't get what the design issue is.
70s Garfield Coffee Table
Jon: Can I trust you with this cake, Garfield? Garfield: Sure.... It's stupid, but you can do it!
Load More Replies...True Romance, By Gab Bois
Pie
I have actually seen a recipe for this on Southern Living (I think), too complicated but cool to look at.
clear lemon pie! never tried it but want to! https://www.tastemade.com/recipes/best-clear-lemon-meringue-pie
things made with gelatin like this are interestig to look at, but flavorless and rubbery
Dalmatian
Butter Stick Type
This came from the book Chindogu 101 (un)useless Japanese inventions. I have a copy of the book but it's in a box somewhere.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FUnuseless-Japanese-Inventions-Kenji-Kawakami%2Fdp%2F0006386725&psig=AOvVaw0ZyXEIUxN2bSATgjfJap_i&ust=1699780895893000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBIQjRxqFwoTCMiB4LXPu4IDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE
Load More Replies...Better than the I Can't Believe It's not Butter Spray I grew up with *gag*
That's what Fabio probably used out on a beach. 😄
Load More Replies...Chinese Food... Shovel of the fat floating in the sewer... heated to smoking... theres you go, pure enough to eat. mark me down and then look it up
Sunglasses
Grandma has come to kick a*s and chew bubble gum, and she's all out of bubble gum
Watching
I read that in the voice of Ros from Monsters Inc. “watching. Always watching Wozawski!”.
I can't come in today. My pants are staring at me.
Shellphone
Why did I "hear this" in Sean Connery's voice as I read it? LOL
Am I the only one who just heard “YOU USED TO CALL ME ON MY SHELL PHONE”
Spoons
Haha! My first reaction was that this is super cool! And yours is the top comment 😅
Load More Replies...remind me of H2G2, the anti-thinking device hitchhiker...8996b1.gif
Harold Lloyd's Iconic Christmas Tree
Pretty cool story .... https://haroldlloyd.com/hunting-for-harold-lloyds-legendary-christmas-ornaments/
Car Interior
Does anyone else hear pimp/porn music in the background? Bow-chicka-wow-wow!! Drive on, Playa!!😎
I like it..... A LOT! I'd buy it in a heartbeat. The only change would be the steering wheel!
That's so you can drive with handcuffs on...
Load More Replies...I hope this thing has seatbelts, otherwise that steering wheel is gonna hurt.
Reverse
Magnet won't do that. My guess is ice, or possibly cgi.
Load More Replies...Pie
Why? this is a long way to go for a piece of cake because the chair has nothing at all to do with being a piece of cake... please dont waste peoples time...
[insert Caption]
1750s. Design vs. Functionality. Baroque Pulpit. Dobroszów🇵🇱
Particularly useful when the story of Jonah is part of the proper of the day.
Is this where the phrase "You've said a mouthful" comes from?
Bastienne Kramer, Cocoon. 1992. Photo: Cary Markerink
The first house my husband and I looked at purchasing was an older house and the master bathroom was huge. The tub was set down into the floor like what this is. I do imbibe on occasion and as cool as the tub looked, I probably would have broken my neck or some other body part at least bu falling into it if we purchased that home 😄😅
Load More Replies...Smoke a fattie and jam to some Badu. Feelin the bump all around you.
Handscapes, By Kai Wasikowski
Rugs
I think it is because those rugs were probably beautiful once upon a time, and now it feels like they stretch off into paths no longer taken. I find it hauntingly enchanting, and I want to incorporate it into dnd somehow. Either a relatively unknown civilization or fae probably
Load More Replies...I believe this is part of the Silk Road if I'm not mistaken. Anyone know for sure? OK I did my research and there are real rugs on portions of the Silk Road .... The Silk Road is famous for its traditional rugs that were made by skilled artisans along the route. These rugs are known for their intricate designs and high quality materials.
So this is where they get all those rugs that I stay up until 2am watching them powerwash on instagram.
Oh, I want to see one of the professional rug cleaning companies on YouTube tackle these beauties!
Inside – Outside Concept, By Thierry Mandon
Mama mama I went to town. Inside outside upside (Anyone know the children's book reference)
Keyboot
I love the sound of keyboards so I would like it to clickety clack while I walked...although it looks stationary.
Avavavfirenze Collection
Is it weird that I kinda want a pair? Maybe for Halloween?
ngl, i, 50m cishet, would indeed wear them
Load More Replies...These actually rather frighten me - I can feel myself wanting to freak out looking at this so Immagonna keep on scrolling.
1970s Space Age
Those chairs are definitely cool. Maybe with some LED accents
Load More Replies...Well, a 2020s idea of what a “space age” 1970s bedroom looked like, made by someone who wasn’t alive in the seventies. The movies aren’t necessarily a good gauge for the decor of any given era. Most people don’t toss everything and redecorate every year. They buy furniture, or find it, or inherit it, or are given pieces of it as wedding or housewarming gifts from very generous relatives, and integrate it, eclectically, into their home decor. I was a teenager during the seventies, and can tell you from personal experience they did NOT look like this. Even the most “out there” people didn’t have rooms like this. And the people who had the funky rooms that would inspire new decor trends usually combed secondhand stores to find it, because they were broke, then put it together with other stuff they found, and brightened all the colors (early seventies) to fit their personality, which is what funkified it, if they were funky people. Later seventies gave us the stultifyingly dull “earth tones” of beige and brown that for some reason keep rising from their grave periodically to this day.
This is my experience as well. Look through magazines of the era to see how things really looked, Good Housekeeping, etc but look at Art/Architecture periodicals to see where "Mad Men" (et al) get their set design ideas.
Load More Replies...The chairs? Yes. That bed? Hell, no. My feet almost always stick out over the edge anyway - I don't need an extra, giant set to accompany my own giant clompers.
2022 Fashion, By Rrakkata
Kenji Kawakami Concept, Early 90s
With my luck, I'd push the brush too hard and flick any dust/dirt right onto the top of my foot. 🙄
Shoes
I think it's screened on the outside. And it's disgusting.
Load More Replies...
