“ Printball ” ( Gaulon , 2005 )
Interview / Article by Jonah Brucker - Cohen
As an exponential amount of digital objects begin to permeate our daily aliveness , the tendency for manufacturers to immix multiple functionalities into one “ mega ” equipment seems to be a popular methodological analysis . Taking this credo as a start point with his hardware inspired projects is Gallic media artist , Benjamin Gaulon . From combine the mechanics of a Paintball hitman with an Ink - Jet printer in his almost absurdist “ Printball ” task to using the exterior of an government agency building as an interactive surface in “ De Pong Game ” , Gaulon ’s projects attempt to gainsay pop conception of how electronic objects and software should and could function in our day-by-day lives . By try the fragility of data transfer and transmitting of file across the net with his “ Corrupt ” project , he is also attempt to comment on the seemingly delicate nature of our world-wide communication networks . Gizmodo recently caught up with Gaulon to discuss his approaching to infiltrating pop ethnic picture through originative intervention in hardware hacking and how recycling outdated technology can lead to young shape of collaborative musical and optical reflection .
Name : Benjamin Gaulon
Age : 26
breeding : Edgar Lee Masters at the Ecole Superieuredes Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg ( 2002 ) , Masters ( Interactive Media & Environment ) , Frank Mohr Institute , Groningen ( The Netherlands , 2005 ) .
Affiliation : Independent , but I have also created a European grouping of creative person , designers , theorizer , engineers , etc .. called Deponk ( www.deponk.com ) .
URL(s):http://www.recyclism.com ,
Recyclism is my oecumenical website , where I present my works . I started most of my project with a site calledwww.digitalrecycling.com(a database for digital filing cabinet recycling , where hoi polloi can upload and download digital junk to produce new works .
GIZMODO : Your labor , “ Printball ” , combines the mechanism of an Ink - cat valium printer and a Paintball cannon . What were you attempting to find out by combining these two devices ?
BG : The idea of the Ink - Jet pressman is more conceptual than real . So it ’s a Paintball gun for hire ( hacked to be automatic , because in Europe [ we are ] not appropriate to have robotlike Paintball hitman , so you require to flat control the solenoid that triggers the gun ) with a custom made Pan and Tilt [ mechanism ] . The idea was to create a “ graffiti robot ” that could dissipate epitome , so instead of using a Paintball hit man to encounter war games this auto can make effigy and text . I ’m ( in most of my projection ) really concerned by the melodic theme of “ detournement ” ( as Guy Debord as defined it in 1959 ) This project is a Deponk labor ( my collective ) because it ’s an idea that we had with a friend and Gallic creative person ( Geraud de Bizien : www.vastemonde.com ) . We had the melodic theme together and I then realized the project during my Masters at the Frank Mohr Institute .
“ Recycling Entertainment System ” ( Gaulon , 2004 )
GIZMODO : The “ Recycling Entertainment System ” connects six Nintendo Entertainment System ( NES ) controllers to a information processing system to control a shared computer software synthesiser . Why did you opt these ironware devices as interfaces for collaborative medicine penning ?
BG : First , after working on digital recycling with the digital recycling website , I want to explore hardware recycling . I also liked the mind of recycling the NES controllers , which are for me the origin of videogame controllers ( the basics : directional buttons , select and start and the A and B buttons ) . now game control are a second more advance but essentially they are establish on those controllers . So it was a mode to go back to the roots of the game control ( they are also the video game that I could playact with as a kid , so part of my personal mythology ) . With this project I also desire to make an interactive system for several players to play and make something together in literal time . The digital recycling project is also establish on that thought but it ’s not made for “ real time ” paper , but the structural concept is really close since both projects are using the concept of database jamming to create raw and original workplace ( try out art ) . The RES has the structure of a band ( with a bass histrion , a drummer , percussion , a closed circuit musician and a synthesiser ) but it ’s like a disk jockey wager as a band ( jamming with audio samples ) .
“ Corrupt ” ( Gaulon , 2005 )
GIZMODO : Your “ Corrupt ” project breaks down an figure file into its binary equivalent and replaces some of this code with a random value from 1 to 20 . What were you attempt to action with this task ? And why are some of the results too damaged to show ?
BG : I ’m reading the binary of a file , trade some bytes ( randomly , from 1 to 20 trade ) and I write it again . Then another part of the code ( done with Processing ) is lade the saved single file again ( checking if it ’s still clear ) and the readable files are “ saved as ” in a outcome pamphlet . So I only keep the corrupted data file that are still readable . This undertaking explores the terminal point of digital technologies and tries to regurgitate and hold in data corruption : this corruption usually pass off during data point transfer ( i.e. einsteinium - mail , ftp , etc . – see this link for a concluded definition : http://en.wikipedia.org / wiki / Data_corr … ) As Kim Cascone write in his article “ “ The Aesthetics of Failure ” ” [ accidents usually cause the most interesting thing to take place ] .
“ De Pong Game ” ( Gaulon , 2004 )
GIZMODO : “ De Pong Game ” repair the famous niff plot as a projection on the surface of a building . A custom modified joystick controls game shimmer and the player must use the built - in elements of the building ( windows , doors , etc ) as elements in the game . What is your ultimate bearing with creating these large - scale of measurement public interactive composition ?
BG : Well , this undertaking fare during a workshop where I was asked to make some media stuff in the “ literal world ” outside my studio apartment and outside the reckoner . At that time I had just observe the concept of Augmented Reality and I was interested to happen ways to research that concept . My mind was first to use the windows as pixel , but since I recover the“Blinkenlights”project ( by Berlin ’s Chaos Computer Club ) , I had to re - intend my estimate . I ’d liked the musical theme of an carrefour between a projection and the existent Earth , since I ’m [ into all thing ] “ recycling ” . I see the originative process as an interminable recycling outgrowth , such as the socio - cultural grummet of creation . I recall that the PONG game was a really interesting matter to recycle when you utter about telecasting games ( since it ’s the line of descent of the video game ) .
GIZMODO : What undertaking are you presently knead on ? How are they similar or different than your preceding projects ?
BG : Actually I ’m working on dissimilar thing , but one of those is the “ E - Waste ” shop with a Dutch company calledBlue Melon . Those workshops ( and your“Scrapyard Challenge”workshops were an influence for that ) are based on the idea of reuse ( hardware recycling ) and we are test to flux the creative possibilities of ironware recycling and to bring some knowingness to the participant about the proceeds of “ E - wild ” pollution . I think as an creative person and as a human being work with electronics and computers , it ’s important to jazz what is materialise to the equipment once it becomes obsolete , which occur really tight for electronic computer .
NintendoPaintballPong
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