The best thing about washing clothes USED to be the opportunity to play the shitty arcade game that occasionally took your quarter. Now people have cellphones full of apps so no one really gives a rats ass about the dusty old Street Fighter II parked in the corner. This has caused some laundromat owners to not even bother with the dated machinery all together.
Introducing Real Play.↓
Photo Courtesy of Lee-Wei Chen.
An arcade washing machine by Lee Wei Chen, this delightful contraption will resurrect the days when you had to kill time (and quarters) while washing your clothes.
f
Photo Courtesy of Lee-Wei Chen.
Photo Courtesy of Lee-Wei Chen.
But this is just some 2-in-1 gadget. Real Play has a purpose and an underlying message:
“The washing machine is a clearly recognisable archetype with implicit associations. It is a domestic workhorse that emancipated the house-wife to yield greater quality time. Ironically, quality time these days is increasingly invested in an electronic world, building skills to serve no useful purpose.
Real Play combines the washing machine with a gaming archetype, the arcade machine. In an age of almost immediate gaming obsolescence, the language of the arcade machine remains constant. With electronic circuits linked, the washing cycle becomes animated and dependent upon the gamer’s skill and progress. Failure to progress beyond a certain gaming level means the wash will similarly fail to progress beyond the corresponding cycle stage, requiring the insertion of more coins to permit further attempts.” – Lee-Wei Chen Website.
Photo Courtesy of Lee-Wei Chen.
Quiet Lunch is a grassroot online publication that seeks to promote various aspects of life and culture with a loving, but brute, educational tinge. When we say, “Creative Sustenance Daily,” we mean it.