Circuit and Ornament

[Ben Bradley]

Hi,

i am studying Mediadesign at the Bauhaus-University Weimar. I start a
little research about "Electronic circuits as an unintentional
Ornament".
I need your help, because I didnt find anything in the net. It seems an
unusual topic.

As others have shown, it's not that rare a topic, you just have to
know how to search for it.

As an engineer I've always found the Gilbert cell to be a thing of
beauty, even though its usual schematic drawing isn't quite
symmetrical. But its function has a multiway symmetry that you don't
see in many things. OTOH, you need to know how the circuit works to
know what I'm talking about.

In the research I want to analyse how emerge the ornamental character
of circuits. In a way the form follows the function, but there is
freedom for the design of PCBs, as you know. Some interconnections are
angular, some tends to are round, some are thick, some thin,... As my
base I had choose a video recorder and its development over the years.

-Do you know any artists, that work with that topic?
-Was there a change in the technic of solder in the past years?
-Have you got some links about the functions of a video recorder?
-Any other help or suggestions?

I think others gave lots of examples, but the art in them were
peripheral (unrelated) to the electronic functions.

 

[Dave]

Hi,

i am studying Mediadesign at the Bauhaus-University Weimar. I start a
little research about "Electronic circuits as an unintentional
Ornament".
I need your help, because I didnt find anything in the net. It seems an
unusual topic.

In the research I want to analyse how emerge the ornamental character
of circuits. In a way the form follows the function, but there is
freedom for the design of PCBs, as you know. Some interconnections are
angular, some tends to are round, some are thick, some thin,... As my
base I had choose a video recorder and its development over the years.

Many components made by Sun Microsystems have some odd features, which
was clearly where the PCB designers had artistic license. I forget what
it is now. Ask on comp.sys.sun.hardware - someone there will tell you
how many Sun boards have this sort of thing. I'm not sure if its disney
names, or something like that.

 

[Terry]

..... "Electronic circuits as an unintentional Ornament".

Frank--Many years ago when I was working at en electronics firm, a
collegue obtained a large box of surplus mica capacitors. These were
the buff-colored rectangular axial-lead units with unit specs
deliniated in a series of colored dots on one side of the capacitor.
The body color was quite pleasing, sort of a "desert-sand" look, and
the uniform-sized color dots were quite visible.

He built a small coffee table with a thin raised edge, arranged the
capacitors with their leads cut off flush in a very pleasing and
interesting tiled pattern with the colors showing, then poured a clear
epoxy or polyethylene solution over them. The result was a durable
finish with the capacitors embedded down in the clear poly (something
like those old liberty-ship hatch covers used as table tops in seaside
reataurants).

Strangely belive it, I thought it looked rather elegant.

Cheers--

Terry--WB4FXD
Edenton, NC