final

Boxes 

The wiring of most of the electronic devices we use is well-hidden inside some sort of casing. Some of these wrappings are meant to look appealing to the eye (apple products), others are nothing more than simple boxes meant to be functional (electric stove) and sometimes the outside can even be deceiving in what it contains. (my gaming pc which is disguised as a standard packard bell)

 This project will explore the different possibilities of the looks of an electronic machine in combination with what you may find inside. The output will be a set of painted boxes of which some will have working hardware inside. 

The process

The first step was to get the needed materials. Cardboard oxes and paint were easily found at a local store. The needed hardware was ordered online, but in the end improvised from various old pieces of technology lying around the house. (the package got lost and arrived a week after the exhibition)

Painting in progress:

The result of the painting:

The three boxes represent different possibilities and are based on past experiences. The white box which is pretty on the outside, but contains only a 'dode mus' on the inside is based on my smart phone. It was a pretty little thing, but started to be a nuisance shortly after I got it. Handling it was not always straightforward, the touchscreen had its own will and in the end it turned out that I simply didn't need most of the features it came with. This device really showed to me that not everything which is pretty is functional and not everything which looks appealing is also something needed.

The black box I tried to give a bit of a zombie look on the outside, something which does not immediately look physically attractive. However the inside it is a more shiny decorated gold colour and it contains a simple piece of hardware which makes white led lights blink in various patterns (including 'mary has a little lamb'). This box refers to my gaming computer. Its case is a tiny packard bell one, but inside it is stuffed with pretty decent components for gaming. After five years it is not the most state of the art computer, but every once in a while I add a new component and because of that I can pretty much play whichever game I want. In this case it is the inside which is totally unexpected when someone only looks at it from the outside.

The grey box I kept purely functional, going for a 'dull' grey metal like coat of paint. On the inside there is a simple switch which lights up two leds (white and red). This refers to technology as I remember it. It can still be seen when looking at the cheaper kinds of machinery around the house. The function is most important and the looks are only regarded as an afterthought (or, as with my 23 year old mixer: not at all). Even the cheaper ovens, televisions, washing machines and whatnot now tend to have some sort of design, but I remember that it used to be not that important at all. The looks used to depend on the function and it seems like nowadays people play around with it more. I suspect this is more of a personal view, though, since I'm only familiar with the old technology at my parents' house. They did not care for what phone or the radio looked like.

Summary

To sum this all up, the project is a personal view on technology design. I could have ordered the parts way more in advance and have had some more focus on hardware than on the analog parts of this project (painting the boxes). However, in the end I liked the fact that this showed something about technology in a more or less analog way. I was not very used to doing a project with little programming, so that was a nice experience as well. Next to that it was quite interesting to be running around the house, demolishing bicycle lights, old modems and remote controls. As a final note, Dimitris made clear that to him the black box was more appealing whereas the white one with the flowers looked very girly to him. I hadn't really taken other people's taste into account when making the boxes, but just my own. That is something I will take note of in the future, to see if it may blur the message.