Shrinking Box
Downsizing
I’m reducing the size of this installment of Boxes and Booze, yet keeping all the content. Things appear to start out as usual, but by the end get edited down to the essence. It’s like my college English professor used to say - I’m “cutting the dross”. I’m particularly fond of the Karakuri Creation Group, as you likely surmised by now. Let’s call them the “KCG” for brevity. They like to push the envelope on possibilities for a puzzle box.
Shrinking Box by Hiroshi Iwahara and Tatsuo Miyamoto
Many years ago they produced a set called the “Creative Secret Box” series which explored highly unusual and novel opening mechanisms. Number five in the series, the “Shrinking Box”, expands the concept, by minimizing it. The idea of a box which needs to literally shrink in order to open is simply fascinating to me, and apparently to Hiroshi Iwahara, who designed it, and Tatsuo Miyamoto, who crafted it, as well. Iwahara suggested that this was the limit of “negative space” for him at the time, but kept the possibility open for a future expansion of the contraction.
You need to think inside the box ...
The idea of the shrinking space void which then opens is too reminiscent of worm holes, black holes and science fiction in general to be ignored. Let’s ponder these mysteries at an uber cool bar built for cocktail geeks known as Jupiter Disco in Brooklyn, New York. The brainy love child of Maks Pazuniak and Al Sotack, the layout was designed with the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars and the Blade Runner bar in mind.
Negative Space by Maks Pazuniak
Here’s the “Negative Space” cocktail, sure to mess with your gravity. It’s a mix of floral French Suze aperitif, lemon juice, licorice and, of course, chocolate, wrapped up with a sparkle. It might cause you to go interstellar. Enjoy it as you watch the volume in your glass magically shrink. Cheers.
These two fill a void
Negative Space by Maks Pazuniak
½ oz. Suze aperitif
½ oz. fresh lemon juice
½ oz. crème de cacao
¼ oz. absinthe blanc
1 drop orange flower water
3 oz. chilled prosecco
Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a tall glass. Top with the prosecco and garnish with a Jupiter Disco Ball.
For more from the KCG: