I was renovating a house and noticed an old TV remote in the trash.
Painted remote by NMoroney
August 2026
Photo: NMoroney
At the time I was priming the walls and ceiling of the kitchen.
So I painted the remote entirely white.
I've done this before with other objects and it's its always a surprise what you notice when object contrast is edited IRL.
Physically altering the object to eliminate the color helped raise questions about the 3D design of the remote.
Which buttons include surface relief cues?
What are the size differences between the rectangular buttons?
Are the physical edges on the battery panel sharper than any other features?
What was the motivation for the inset panel for the bottom two rows?
How did two of the smaller buttons get to be almost circular?