Ready-mades, projects, and some concepts used

With Duchamp or Lygia Clark, among others, works gain a meaning that is inherent to the material (or technique used) in its construction. Their participative objects produce perceptions that go beyond a good design or a pleasant combination of aesthetic elements. When an object is handled, it becomes interactive and unfolds into several forms of individual interpretation.

According to Lygia Clark, the perception concentrates not only in the eyes, but in the whole sensitive organism.

Another concept that we consider to be important to think about was “PROBJETO”, created by Rogerio Duarte. It would be the objects without formulation – such as unfinished works – created at the moment of each participation. Other values also present in the works by Hélio Oiticica expressed this form of creating unusual interactive objects.

“For us it doesn’t seem like the economy of elements is directly linked to the idea of structure, to the formation since the beginning, to the non-technique as a discipline, to the freedom of creation as supra economy, where the rudimental element already releases open structures” . The content created for the prototype can bring all the metaphor present in the monitor’s windows, as well as those present in our relation with the ground, the floor, or a surface.

The dislocation of information as a symbol

The dislocations of the portable monitor (screen) are captured by the interface of the computer by the mouse sensors. That means that the movements up and down are converted into numbers that scroll a webpage up or down in the monitor.

The interface will react with the physical displacement in the real world (monitor is on) and will show the information that changes in the computer monitor like the scrolling of a webpage. The normal use of the mouse was re-configured in a way different from the usual, or habitual, determined by everyday uses. We placed the “WHEEL”, which makes the mouse scroll, upside down and that transforms the movement (displacement) of the physical object into information for the computer.

Do-It-Yourself and electronic waste (E-WASTE)

We live in a society that is more incapable of recovering old images than of retouching new ones. We buy a so-called “new” computer that becomes old due to the new gaits or new technologies.

The computer that helps at work, in our communication, in life, also becomes consumption and discard addictions. Billions of tons of electronic waste are produced in this incessant production of “new” technologies that only benefits the big industries. Proposals of reversed engineer, such as understanding the operation of one thing in order to create a similar one, are not discussed as proposals for teaching and learning. We are consumers and we are not interested in the content, but in the packaging.

The Do-It-Yourself, as a construction technique of local technology, allows intellectual, technical, and cultural development because of the simple act of “creating” instead of copying or buying a new electronic device. With the intention of showing that it is possible to create “new” technologies with affordable, cheap, or even second hand or discarded accessories, we created the portable monitor called monimóveltor.

Construction of DISLOCATIONS 01: monimóveltor

The initial idea was to let a portable computer with a rotating panel (netbook) dislocate, supported by two parallel fixed bars in a wall. After researching on the internet for similar interfaces, we understood and studied models that we could use as reverse engineer.

Through these models, we tried even more to loosen the monitor from a rigid position, as long as it was still supported horizontally, like a monitor.

A great reference was "The Golden Calf" by Jeffrey Shaw, which is a cow created inside a 3D system that can only be seen by the movement of the monitor on the top of a stand.

So it emerged: the first version of a portable monitor (monimóveltor) that dislocated on the ground when controlled by a person.

The screen went to the ground, a fact that provided other aesthetic and conceptual meanings. This still unusual disposition concerning monitors suited the project well because it is also possible to employ other contents related to floor, ground, soil, etc.

The WHEEL mouse or scroll bar as a sensor

Other difficulties we found in the process of research related with the system installed on NETBOOK, Windows CE, which is very limited and prevented the use of media such as videos and advanced flash programming.

The solution to this unexpected technical problem was to try to use a basic multimedia language; so we arrived at the internet browsers and HTML webpages. That was the only form, or software, that enabled us to visualize texts and images inserted in HTML code. We also used the vertical scroll of the webpage to create a visual dynamics that follows the movement of the object (dislocation in a space, on the ground).

In spite of the technical difficulties, we could count on the several talks about the project and its possible interfaces and developments during the meetings that took place at Marginalia Lab. All the help and the observation, as well as the references, were welcomed and became part of the final prototype.

Materials used in the Construction

With little knowledge of electronics, it was possible to create an object because we used the robotic kits Modelix, which are very intuitive and are organized for the construction of robotic in schools.

We analyzed a few models of construction so that later we could create a basic structure for the cart and the portable monitor. The initial idea (the construction via wireless control) was not prioritized in the elaboration of the prototype. We needed to know if it was really possible to arrange the moveable cart with the digital content.

Final prototype: monimóveltor

In order to display the results of the research, we created a prototype with the materials mentioned above. The monimóveltor is working well and we had satisfactory results if we consider this to be the first experience in this kind of interface. It clearly still needs changes, such as in the mechanic part, where we put fewer batteries in order to decrease the dislocation speed so that we could better visualize the content displayed on the screen.

Other details such as the accumulation of dirt in the mouse scroll were studied only after the object was created and tested with movement.

That was a great motivation because we materialized the prototype that provided tests, analyses, and a development projection with other interactive resources, in addition to new possibilities of displaying and interacting with audiovisual contents.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Fernando Rabelo: Holds a degree in Animation Movies and a master in Art and Image Technology from Escola de Belas Artes at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Technological possibilities recreated in a reflexive and critical form, projected as domestic ordinary jury rigs, such as the steel wool that increases the capture of TV images or the several wires that compose the creation of a system of panoramic and interactive projections. The work of this artist from Minas Gerais is composed of this vast world in which animation, illustration, video, web, education projects, installations, and urban intervention coexist.

Sérgio Augusto Mendes Ferreira: Holds a degree in Architecture and Urbanism from FAMIH/BH, is an Electronics technician certified by CEFET with Extension in System Analysis by UFMG. Worked with the authorship of multimedia in projects such as Museu de Artes e Ofícios, Trem da Vale etc. Has researched and developed software involving non-conventional interfaces. Currently, he is the Coordinator of the area of Programming of the Project REPIA (Residence of Interdisciplinary Advanced Research).