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Retrono (2016)

More writing, video links, and image documentation is coming soon for this project, thank you for your patience. The below writing is minimally edited from my MFA thesis which frames the artefact as a case study in repurposing preexisting electronic systems while exposing their circuitry to direct human contact as a means of control. The Retrono interface is an appropriated video game console which is repackaged to facilitate a completely new and unconventional interaction schema between the device and interactee. The interface exposes, highlights, and reveals the internal circuitry of the device, ironically disguising it from recognition and liberating it from the uses of its past life.

Project Background and Introduction

The creation of this interface has been informed by the methedology of “Designing for Hackability” as proposed in the 2004 international conferences Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) by Anne Galloway, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, Lalya Gaye, Elizabeth Goodman, and Dan Hill in the paper with the same name [33]. Interfaces that are designed for Hackability are customizable: allowing the user to turn them into the device they want them to be. Hackable interfaces cultivate reciprocity between the designers, users, and the device itself while embracing unanticipated usage with both transparency and robustness in construction. In the current age of hyper- normalization and increased technological literacy, a revitalized consumer desire for individuality and personalization is emerging and hackable design is increasingly common. McPherson and Zappi’s D-Box, as well as Peter Blassers Paper Circuits and inner surface creations, introduced earlier in this section are all examples of projects which are designed for hackability along with select projects introduced in later chapters such as the Discovery Synth2 and Modular SNES.

Hardware hacking and circuit bending are both inherently violent activities that tend to mutilate the original device: altering its capabilities, interactions, and even purpose. While that method is exemplified in several works presented in later chapters, and is a valid approach, not all profit from those methods. A source of provocation and the catalyst for many projects is Christina Kubisch’s work as an installation artist. Christiana’s installations empower visitors to listen to electronic circuitry with her custom magnetic flux sonification headphones. The headphones enact their magic from afar without any violence, obtrusiveness, or even physical contact and are a direct departure from the exchanges typical with circuit bent devices. Her interactions are introverted yet exploratory, covert and empowering."

Design and Construction

The Retrono interface discussed in this writing is furthermore directly influenced by Peter Blassers work with developing instruments under the philosophy of inner surface. The interface, used in the installation Cathode Ray Tubes, is not a blue-sky project built from the ground up. Instead, creating a Retrono is an act of removal and replacement as oppose to construction. The interface is a Retron retro video game console which consists of a hardware emulator for the famed Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). To transform a Retron into a Retrono takes three steps:

1. The controller ports, reset button, and power button are removed from the Retron

2. The red power LED is replaced with a white LED

3. The original plastic case is removed while the hardware is rehoused in a laser-cut clear acrylic box

The Retrono cases have four openings: one for the power plug, one for the video output, one for the audio output, and one large rectangular opening directly above where the unit’s main circuitry is housed intentionally exposing board to outside interference - electromagnetic of physical. Once a Retron is converted into a Retrono it is unable to play NES games; the case does not allow a game cartridge to be inserted into the cartridge slot and the interface is assembled without a game inside. Unlike a NES console which has mechanisms to detect the presence of a game cartridge and will not attempt to synthesize video output without a game, the Retron has no such mechanisms and will always synthesize a video output. When the devise is housed in its original case it is protected from outside interference and the image it displays will usually be black, when the console is turned into a Retrono this changes. The console attempts to decode the floating electrical charges at each of its input pins as video and audio data. The once video game console is transformed into an 8-bit audio-visual synthesizer whose output is can be manipulated by the electrical properties of its user’s body.

Retronos are most effective when CRT TV’s are used to display their output. The strong electromagnetic field emanating from the tubes turbocharges the reactivity of the Retrono creating a feedback loop between the TV and Retrono. As they are not functional in a conventional sense there is no right, or wrong, way to interact with a Retrono. They are created out of the desire for a hyper-reactive system that people can play with and explore without the burden of any expectations or instructions.

Related Works and Writing

The Retrono hardware project was purpose-built to realise the installation Cathode Ray Tubes which can be found HERE.

Works Referenced in Writing

[33] A. Galloway, J. Brucker-Cohen, L. Gaye, E. Goodman, and D. Hill, “Design for hackability,” 2004, p. 363.