That there is the Ironman stool, by designers Ashley Hall & Matthew Kavanagh.

Ironman celebrates our experiments with unconventional making processes and surface finishes. Inspired by traditional West African tribal furniture, it replaces millennia of ad-hoc wood carving with an equally ancient blend of hand carving and metal casting. The result is a uniquely expressive object capturing iron age technology.... The legs are deliberately left with a rough texture while the seating surface and top edge are finished to a high polish.

Never mind that I think it looks kind of gross--that's subjective, some of you might love the aesthetic--here's the part from the stool's press release that bothers me: "The sitter has to adopt a crouching posture that is culturally unusual in the west and therefore demands a more conscious engagement with the product."

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get up in the mornings so I can consciously engage my products. A chair that's designed to be uncomfortable purely to draw my attention? Pass. I think furniture's here to serve us, not the other way around.