Concept

BLACKBOX is an analogue to digital visual synthesizer built around a custom controller with 16 knobs (potentiometers) and 2 switches. It explores co-creation as a negotiation between hand, controller, and visual output, where control is distrubted across the full process, in real time.

Hardware

The physical controller has been SLA 3D printed in the shape of a blobject: soft and transparent. The aim was to pay homage to early 2000s tech, which was modular and fixable (less of a blackbox). It has a Single Board Computer (RPi5) and an analogue to digital converter (A.D.C.) which enables the values from the controller to be interpreted by a Python script, which then translates it into the frontend output.

Framing control

Rather than treating control as a fixed input-output relationship, the system frames it as an ongoing loop. In this sense, BLACKBOX asks does more controls necessarily mean more control?

full case study (pdf) →

Controller & visuals