Custom / modified electronic devices and electronics inability to be dissected from their casing.

Following on from the sound objects I made at mid-year I was interested in how existing electronic devices, such as projectors, tablets and iPhones, could be adapted and modified in a similar vein. How when removed from their outer shells, they could shed some elements od the aesthetic design choices of their creates - and instead just present the electronic components supported by acrylic and stainless steel hardware. In exposing the electronic device, it systems and construction become apparent, akin to the whitebox. The white, clear or glass box is a "system where the inner components or logic are available for inspection". [1] Ordinarily, without a case, or protective covering, the electronic device become more fragile, more prone to damage. The addition of a custom case adds a level of protection but in the aesthetic of the modifier and not the creator.

This type of modification can be linked to case modification in computer hardware and software. Focusing on hardware, case modification, commonly referred to as case modding, to "show off" a computer's specifications such as power by showing off the internal hardware, and also to make it look aesthetically pleasing to the owner, often in response to "beige box" aesthetic of early personal computers. [2] The beige box" not only refers to the use of beige and other neutral colours such as off white and ecru, but also to the banal specifications, "It was functional, neutral, almost non-design. " [3] Cases may also be modified to improve a computer's performance; this is usually associated with cooling and involves changes to components as well as the case. Case modification can be considered to be a third party or after marked endeavour that eventuates in customisation in hardware or software form to the taste of the individual.

Example of the beige box, pc 100, wikiwand, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/IBM_PC_Series

Example of a computer case mod / after market case using acrylic perspex, X-Clear Acrylic Computer Case, http://www.xoxide.com/clearacatxca.html

In reference to my overall EOY install and the nature of multiple components, physical and actual, it think the use of customised electronic devices could provide excessive noise. Although I think it's interesting to think about how these about and modification relate to Charles Jenck's adhocism, disectability and promotion of consumer customisation as an act of anti-globalisation and anti-consumerist culture, I also wonder if such things become lost when among so many other elements.

Though I'm not interested in conveying these devices as speculative objects - they could fall under the wider umbrella of critics design.

On a practical side, based off of experience deconstructioning electronic systems from their cases, although projectors can be removed from their plastic cases, phone and tablet have become harder to dissect. There is a oneness or wholenesss about these devices, who often don't have screws and are innately designed into their case by fixtures, or are dependant on specific glass technologies for touch screen. It is hard to isolate these elements when using contemporary devices, which run the required software, and retain their ability to work. This is because they have been designed specifically to always be housed in such casing.

The next most applicable route is to utilise black housed devices. Although colour is becoming more prolific in PC and phone design - as way of self expression and minimal personalisation, black has become fairly common - taking the place of the beige box. If black is considered "neutral" in its relationship to personal or specific aesthetic. [4] There is a sene of continuity between devices and cables, and other existing drives in the home. Although in high contrast and not invisible, black used in electronic case design becomes secondary to its screen or projections. It casts our eyes to the screen and minimise the design. The use of exclusively black casing also refers to the idea of the black box. A black box is a "device, system, or object which can be viewed in terms of its inputs and outputs, without any knowledge of its internal workings." [5]

In reference to using tablets and phones in their "as-os" state, AR artist Claire B notes that for her and collaborator and Adrien M in the exhibition "Miracles and mirages" (2020), "technology is not the end". [6] They utilise technology as a mediator for an experience. "We like it when technology is hidden, driven to reveal something hidden." [7] What talk about here - is not that technology is hidden behind a wall - but that the technology is left in its usual state. That in its usual state it becomes neutral, that they don't command attention away from what is being experienced. That device is not an artwork, merely a communicator - a mediator. "When you read a book it’s an augmented reality experience, because you have a real object full of possibilities and your brain, your sensibility is doing a lot of work on this object, from this object.So I always try to invent projects in which people need to work." [8] In using tablets and phones as art-mediators Claire and Adrien propose people can have alternative experiences with these commonly used devices.[10] These alternative experience move the commercial and useful to which the devices are commonly attributed, and instead are poetic, "It’s important for us to take a part in the field with no use, no goal, no nothing, only poetry." [11]

Perhaps, it seems counterproductive to have my sound playing objects the same install as as-is projectors, phones and tablets but what I what to highlight is this concept of complex relationships, contradictory desires designers Dunne & Raby reference through out their text Speculative Everything (.) [12pg. 42,49, 151 189] Having these two conflicting thing in space explores what is with could be... What is given by the commercial, mass production and what is created by the individual in the image of what they want - what they desire. A different level to speculative design... the contrast between my sound playing objects and as as-is projectors, phones and tablet is more likened to critical design. There is a sense of purposeful creation, not "invention for invention sake," with the sound object as they were created from not being able to find an exclusively sound playing device with no screen (that wasn't a phone first, or a walkman first, or a mp3.) There is also a reference to idea of Jenck's "dissectibility" which gives agency (freedom) to the people to be involved, modify and selects parts in the systems that affect them and their society, without the arduous task of rebuilding the system altogether. [13] This method avoids the fatalism of accepting or rejecting wholistic systems the way they are presented to us. [14] Or, utilising what works in a way that feels right and is applicable to the work, accepting the neutrality of existing devices due to their proliferation in society, avoiding the obviously branded object and creating custom objects that were missing from the market.

[1] & [2] Will Kenton, Black Box Model, 2020, Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackbox.asp

[3] & [4] Steve Lohr, The Beige Box Fades to Black, 2002, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/18/technology/the-beige-box-fades-to-black.html

[5] Will Kenton, Black Box Model, 2020, Investopedia, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blackbox.asp

[6] - [11] Claire B, "Technology is nothing without the human intention behind it,"Katia Kreuzhube, interviewed by Katia Kreuzhube, July 15, 2019, Are Electronica, https://ars.electronica.art/aeblog/en/2019/07/15/miragesmiracles/

[13] - [14] Jencks, Charles, and Nathan Silver. Adhocism: The Case for Improvisation</i>. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, England: MIT Press, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5hhcvj, 32.