A Desk on Mechanical Legs Walks Out the Door

Camera: side three-quarter angle, indoors in a calm office, aimed at an open door that leads to a luminous corridor. Style: surreal editorial photograph. Here is what happens. A whole wooden office desk is halfway out. Its leading end has gone past the threshold and stands in the corridor, whereas its trailing end is still back in the gloomier room. Underneath it, fastened where anyone can see them, are four stubby jointed mechanical legs; two plant themselves on the office floor, and two reach down on to the corridor floor. The desk is striding out under its own power, rather than being left outside. A little desk lamp, a shut blank notebook and a neat pencil cup sit on its surface and ride along. The matching office chair comes right after it, rolling through the same opening on tiny casters, with its seat angled toward the corridor. The two pieces are a set, and each is visibly on its way out. The door frame encircles the furniture while it crosses; ahead is open corridor floor and behind is the receding office, so there is no doubt about which way they head. Light: the brighter corridor glow falls on the moving legs and the chair. Gentler light from the office sculpts the wood, the metal joints and the small objects on the desktop. Framing: wide 16:9, with the full desk, every one of its four legs, the chair and the entire doorway kept inside the picture and a clear margin around them. Floors and walls of both spaces continue right up to the frame edges. Writing and logos are absent from the room, the notebook and the accessories.