GMU:Printed Circuit Board Art/mxkllmnn: Difference between revisions

Unfortunately, when I tore down one of the adaptors available at the local electronics market, I found <I>myself</i> in a dream world. This time I realized that I do not have the electrical engineering degree I needed to understand the not-as-easy-as-I-thought circuitry of connecting different interface systems (HDMI/SD/Audio Jack/USB-A to USB-C). Even though it seems rather simple to transmit signals from one copper contact to another, many components are necessary in between if the ends do not speak the same language. From the picture one can see that there is at least one IC per interface, as well as a quartz to translate between signals of different frequencies, not to speak of numerous capacitors, resistors, and regulators. So I started all over again.

The good thing about dismissing this first idea was the new opportunity to find a topic closer to what I was doing in my thesis at that moment. To call a spade a spade: I wrack my head around the question of how to cope with the challenge of increasing automation with regard to interfaces that are being transformed as a result. In most cases, if the cybernetic loop of control and display is being altered, a transformation of the underlying system’s user interface is implicit. In home automation, for example, this has led to the disappearance of well established interfaces and now all too often leave us frustrated. In a nutshell, this project is about designing new interfaces as an alternative to popular but dystopian smart home futures or: How to teach old switches new tricks.