MACRO
Prompt - Macro : Write a description of an object close up
Where to commence, top or bottom, form or function, beginning or end? I will start with the flat area, getting the ugliness out of the way early on.
The flatness enables smooth movement, but is marred, visually, by lines and openings and the markings of commercialisation and legislative progress. To the front a curve of limo window black defines the forward outline, swiftly curtailed by a straight line from side to side. And then a label, not quite full width, showing tiny defining script, in English, symbols for the cognoscenti, a lengthy bar code, a lengthy numeric code, and a few characters of Chinese script. Every bit of it ignorable in the everyday.
The remainder of the surface is in the same striking turquoise shade as the main body, through to the rer where the end piece is the same limo black as at the front, but with a more pronounced curve and deeper body. In between those extremes there are three blemishes to the smooth surface.
To the left, towards the label, a 10mm rectangle with curved sides, about 3mm deep, contains a small switch that can be moved from left to right, right to left. To it's immediate right tiny engraved symbol indicating the function of the switch. Behind that a bigger oval with defining outline, an inner border, and slope sided indentation ending in clear material, which itself has a small dome protruding. A flickering red light sometimes signals the presence of activity within (in response to activity without).
To the right, and taking up slightly more than half the surface area between label and rearwards blackness, is a form of hatch, flush with the surface but clearly outlined. Outwith it's right hand edge there is an indentation, thumb tip sized, that curves up at the side and then straightlines only a couple of millimetres from the edge of the flatness. At the foot of the indentation, against the hatch, a further thin indentation. On the hatch surface itself, another couple of millimetres in and slightly longer than the indentation in both directions, another line, this one looking into the darkness within. And, finally, inboard of that, another cryptic symbol explaining the overall purpose of the hatch.
It is good to be able to turn the object over now, to show it's far more attractive upper aspect, and restore it to carrying out the functions for which it is intended. From the flat base the front and sides rise outwards, expanding the overall width, the front mildly convex, the sides more clearly concave, while at the rear there is one smooth rising curve towards the upper surface, this curve linking in smoothly to changes of direction from it's siblings, helping to create the smooth bulbosity of the upper surface.
That surface is a clear outline, a curved carapace of a slightly different hue to the main body (matt to the body's gloss), although in part that is down to discolouration due to constant daily use. Clear grey lettering to the back of this surface communicates who is the manufacturer, a globally recognised brand. This surface, in contrast to the rigid body, is designed to flex to the touch, and a dividing line at the front allows left or right to be manipulated independently. Behind that divider a long gloss insert, perhaps 25 to 30mm long, and around 12mm across, with a small knurled wheel, aligned fore and aft, protruding from dead centre, and in line with the most flexible areas of the main surface. It, and those independently flexing curves, are at the heart of the device's functionality.
Put it all together and I have something that, in colour and shape, is an attractive addition to its environment, and performs functions essential to much that I do. What more could you ask from an inanimate object? And, in return, perhaps I should clean it more often...
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