I wrote an article for this month’s issue (January/February 2010) of The Atlantic Magazine on the interesting and far reaching cultural effects that small, inexpensive computers (like the Arduino) are having and will continue to have upon the art world. The Atlantic, one of the world’s venerable magazines (having survived 151 years and counting) amazingly displays all of its content on its website for free, so you can read the whole piece here.
Physical computing, as defined in the piece, is computing technology that relies not on keyboards and mice for input, but just about everything else. Sensors, meters, electrical and physical interfaces of every kind transduce something physical into something that the cheap but powerful computer chips can understand. The opportunities this presents for artists of all sorts are myriad.
One particularly interesting physical computing interface is Tom Gerhardt’s “Mudtub.”The artist basically turns a tub of mud into a sort of computer mouse. I mentioned it in the Atlantic article but it really needs to be seen to be understood. Check out the video.
From his website:
By sloshing, squishing, pulling, punching, etc, in a tub of mud (yes, wet dirt), users control games, simulators, and expressive tools; interacting with a computer in a new, completely organic, way. Born out of a motivation to close the gap between our bodies and the digital world, the Mud Tub frees the traditional computer interaction model of its rigidity, allowing humans to use their highly developed sense of touch, and creative thinking skills in a more natural way.