User:Jasper van Loenen/RWRM/description

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Test Screen Installation Description

draft revision

what

'Test Screen' is the title of an installation made out of a big (about 110x80x40 centimeters), black, wooden box with an equally wide and about 60 centimeters high wooden board on top of it. The board has a rectangular opening in the middle, through which you can see a flatscreen monitor which has been attached directly to the back of the board. On the left and right side of the monitor there are black plastic knobs - a total of 96 - which are divided into groups by thin white rectangles. Each of these groups holds six to eleven knobs and has a flip switch and the text 'element', followed by the number of the group, in its top left corner.

On the monitor you see an image representing a television test screen. Each group of dials controls a different element on the screen - such as a colored box or a gradient. By turning the knobs you can change the elements' properties like color, size, and position, enabling you to change the shown image and make your own composition.

how

After the code needed to run the installation was finished and proven to work in a small prototype, the big box was the first element to be made. Next was the top board: the measures of the monitor and knobs were taken so holes could be sawn and drilled in the appropriate places. All the wood was then painted black. Each group of electronics for the knobs was soldered separately and then put trough the holes in the board from the back. On the front, small plastic knobs were attached: these are the elements the visitor can rotate. Using a plotter cutter I made white stickers to put around each group of knobs. In the exhibition space an iMac was placed inside the box and connected to the electronics and the screen.

why

When looking for a subject for my graduation project I realized I find modern electronics interesting, but also boring in their appearance - many devices look just about the same and are obvious the result of mass producing. Another thing I found interesting was the fact that these devices are capable of doing many things, but you can never see how these things come to be. It is impossible to see trough their fancy exterior and see the inner workings. I wanted to combine these two realizations and create a computer or system which would feel more hand-made and which would give the user some clues as to what is happening when you use it. I also found it important to produce this system by myself, so it would really be my product - from the coding and woodcrafting to the electronics.

Andre's note

+ concise + each part restrains only to itself

- be interesting to read more about the code, how it works - what: could more information on how it looked: in what context it was exhibited, how people interacted with it

Previous version

Test Screen Installation Description

what

'Test Screen' is the title of an installation which was part of my graduation from the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, the Netherlands. It is an installation made out of a big (about 110x80x40 centimeters), black, wooden box with an equally wide and about 60 centimeters high wooden board on top of it.

The board has a rectangular opening in the middle, through which you can see a flatscreen monitor which has been attached directly to the back of the board. On the left and right side of the monitor there are black plastic knobs - a total of 96 - which are divided into groups by thin white rectangles. Each of these groups holds six to eleven knobs and has a flip switch and the text 'element', followed by the number of the group, in its top left corner.

On the monitor you see an image representing a television test screen. Each group of dials controls a different element on the screen - such as a colored box or a gradient. By turning the knobs you can change the elements' properties like color, size, and position, enabling you to change the shown image and make your own compositi