A "Device" to instigate "Change"
In DIY: The Militant Embrace of Technology, Marcin Ramoki states that "Consumers fundamentally don't understand the intention behind the production and existence of the commodity. They don't understand how it's made and where, and what is the actual value of the commodity within their personal frame of reference." (2) The result of this situation is that people become passive and submissive with their relationships to surrounding technologies. Many artists respond by subverting the intent and uses of consumer technology. They hack into existing devices, re-routing, re-purposing, and re-contextualizing their physicality and content. Through this process, the aspects of technology we take for granted or possibly fear become visible, manageable and playful.
PROJECT 1: GuitarBot 2.0
I started a project over the summer with Andy Doro which involves hacking a computer printer to make it play a guitar string. It is called GuitarBot 2.0 in respect to Eric Singer's original GuitarBot. This project will take a couple forms. First, there will be 4 GuitarBot 2.0s with different gauge guitar stings designed to be played together. This iteration of GuitarBot 2.0 will be featured on Make Magazine's DIY podcast. Second, one GuitarBot 2.0 will be designed to be played by a computer so that instead of printing the "visual" of an image, it will print the "sound" of an image from the computer.
In process: guitarbot play.mov
PROJECT 2: Headphone Recorder
I am fascinated by the role headphones play as a transportable mediating devices between private and public space. One of several projects I am developing around this theme is a simple, rhetorical device : the headphone recorder. The headphone recorder receives audio signal of external sounds while the user listens to his or her "internal music." The user may mix the levels of the external and internal sounds to create a sonic blend of private/public auditory space.
Thoughts on: Headphone Space