2013
author
Roman Mackovič (SK)
title
Post‑digital Paper
degree
M.A. project
e-mail
school
Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava
supervisor
Ján Šicko
This is an experimental piece which does not aim to be a finished design. The platform combining paper and new technologies can be used in various ways. “My intention was to make creative use of technologies; to gain experience in work with ink as a conductor; to experiment freely, but also to find a sensible application for the combination of paper and electronics,” the designer writes. The paper keyboards covered in conducting ink allow you to control the computer with Arduino open‑source software. In this way you can create the keyboard controls you want, with your own prints and functions. The designer claims that such products are relatively inexpensive, could be mass‑produced, and have many applications, including computer games and toys for children. This work might be partly understood as an attempt to humanize advanced technologies. But will using an added external control device be appealing to a person brought up on touch screens? Or perhaps in lieu of their mass production, which the designer aims toward, we might suggest a more DIY approach, by which the very process of making the equipment would be a creative form of learning.