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Life is a bit of a puzzle.
We move through it making assumptions about what we can see, rarely knowing what is happening behind the curtain. We push, pull, turn, question, get stuck, change our perspective—and every once in a while, something shifts.
Suddenly we see what was there all along.
Shift Happens was created around much the same idea.
Originally designed as my entry for the IPP44 Design Competition, Shift Happens presents the solver with a substantial mechanical puzzle box whose workings remain almost entirely hidden. You know something is happening inside. You can feel that the puzzle is responding to you. But understanding what is happening—and ultimately how to make the Shift happen—is another matter entirely.
Then comes the reward.
Once solved, the internal section can be shifted into view, and the curtain is pulled back. What had previously existed only as mystery is suddenly revealed as mechanism.
I've always loved that aspect of puzzles because it mirrors life remarkably well. So much of our experience is shaped by what we can see from where we currently stand. Sometimes it takes curiosity, persistence, a different perspective—or simply the willingness to question an assumption—before the hidden architecture becomes visible.
And once you've seen behind the curtain, you can never quite see the puzzle the same way again.
Shift Happens was subsequently voted into the Top Ten by attendees at IPP44, a wonderful acknowledgement of a design that was tremendous fun to create.
The production run has since sold out.
One additional copy was donated to the Lilly Library in Indiana, where it will remain part of its puzzle collection.
That leaves this one—the only remaining copy available.
As with my other work, it is individually numbered.
For the collector who enjoys a puzzle that offers something beyond the eventual solution, Shift Happens is an exploration of mechanics, perception, assumptions, and discovery.
Because whether we're talking about puzzles or life itself...
it's all a mystery until we get a chance to see behind the curtain.
And sometimes, to get there...
you just have to make the Shift Happen.
— Kelly Snache
