“The Robot is the garden” is a large-scale interactive piece that functions to identify artistic and aesthetic intent in internal computer design.
Build a “garden” from an internal computer design that people can walk into and sit on and observe the way information (and electricity) move through the system. Instead of grass, people walk on the green motherboard, instead of benches, people would sit on computer chips, instead of trees, there would be cables and video cards.
The project will be a large-scale interactive piece that will allow users to physically explore the inside of a computer as represented by a garden. Users on the inside will be able to track how information and electricity move through the machine. Outside, users will be able to input data, either via basic text editing or graphic editing tools, that those on the inside will be able to track from input device through the cpu and back to the output device.
“Designing the Inside” was the old working title of this project and the purpose of the project is to expose the black box that is the inside of the computer by exposing the functional parts as elements in a garden. The model of the interior design is informed by research into artistic and aesthetic intent by computer designers. The project will work to define what are aesthetics in relation to computer design and to determine to what degree artistic and aesthetic intent play in the decisions those designers make with regards to internal computer design. The final major area of research for this project will focus on technological pastoral and if the concept of pastoral ideal can be expressed by a garden-like-motherboard-setting. In this research it will be critical to explore whether or not the two concepts of technology and pastoral can co-exist in our world of advanced computer technology.
Ideally the piece will allow visitors to gain a better understanding of the way computer internals work and interact. This project would likely be best suited for a children’s technology museum or computer history museum setting. The audience will include people of all ages who simply except the computers do the work we require without ever thinking about how things look and work on the inside.
“the way scientific and technical work is made invisible by its own success. When a machine runs efficiently, when a matter of fact is settled, one need focus only on its inputs and outputs and not on its internal complexity. Thus, paradoxically, the more science and technology succeed, the more opaque and obscure they become.”
- Bruno Latour
Typically art projects drive research, but in this case research (exploring aesthetic and artistic intent in the design of computer internals) drive this project. Initially, this was a research project without a clear idea for an accompanying art project. Some of the original art project ideas included an inside-out-computer, converting the geography of the computer internals to a 3D-based game engine that users could navigate, and placing a user driven camera into the inside of system so users could navigate the internal landscape using a joystick to control the camera angles. All of the initial ideas lacked a creative element that discouraged me from actually investigating them as real project possibilities – I was still waiting for my “a-ha” moment when it came to a project idea that would work well with my specific area of research. Then the idea came for creating a full sized garden out of the inside of a computer and that idea is compelling enough to drive this project to completion.
Many questions are coming up in the design process that will need to be addressed well before the work begins to actually physically build this project.
Project dimensions:
24’ wide, 8’ height, and 30’ deep (computer only, not including external mouse, keyboard, or possible terminal)
Total space needed for project:
24’ wide by 40’ deep (space for projection onto computer screen as well as large-scale keyboard and mouse)
Power:
2 x standard 110v outlet (no special power requirements other than access to outlets on two different circuits)
Equipment:
2 x Computer, keyboard, and mouse + MAX software (for external terminal and system to control MAX/jitter software for visual cues in the inside garden space)
Digital Projector (to project input software on computer screen)
Computer driven lighting effects (el wire, rope lights, led lights)
Cables to connect all components (long cables in many cases)
Materials:
Plywood and 2x4s to build outside of computer as well as the organic elements on the inside
Green, silver, and black paint to recreate look and feel of computer motherboard
(Use actual grass on the inside of the system?)
Conceptual Design: 2 months/1 person
Prototyping: 1 month/1 person
Construction: 6 months/3-4 people
Presentation: 1 week (1st showing, hopefully much longer if I can find somewhere to permanently show it)
Documentation: 2 months (does this include research paper as well?)
The only part of the project that will need to happen sequentially is the actual construction for final presentation. Initial construction (as proof of concept) will be less sequential, but still limited to exterior work, then interior work.
A typology of design space explorers, Robert Woodbury and Andrew Burrow, 2005
iWoz, Steve Wozniak w/Gina Smith, 2006
Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture, Jon Stokes, 2006
Digital Design Principles and Computer Architecture, Edward Karalis, 1996
The Machine in the Garden, Leo Marx, 1964
And the following via Google Books:
Computer Architecture: Fundamentals and Principles of Computer Design By Joseph D. Dumas, Joseph D. Dumas, II
The Design Dimension of Planning: Theory, Content and Best Practice for Design Policies By John V. Punter, Matthew Carmona
Art, Design, and Visual Culture: An Introduction by Malcolm Barnard
A History of Architectural Theory: From Vitruvius to the Present By Hanno-Walter Kruft
Modern Architectural Theory: a historical survey, 1673-1968 By Dr Harry Francis Mallgrave
The ABC's of triangle, Square, Circle: The Bauhaus and Design Theory By Ellen Lupton
Art, Design, and Visual Culture: An Introduction by Malcolm Barnard
Iconography and Electronics Upon a Generic Architecture: A View from the Drafting Room By Robert Venturi
Design Theory and Computer Science: Processes and Methodology of Computer Systems Design By Subrata Dasgupta
Advances in Environment, Behavior, and Design: Toward the Intergration of Theory, Methods, Research, and Utilization By Moore, Gary T. Moore, Environmental Design Research Association
Is the Brain a Digital Computer? John R. Searle 
http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/searle.comp.html
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