User:Jasper van Loenen/RWRM/description

Test Screen Installation Description

'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 compositions with the different elements. To reset the screen you need to put each knob back into its default position, indicated by a small white dot next to it.

The installation is positioned in the space in a way that enables visitors to see the back of the board, which shows all of the electronics needed to make everything work.