The RhythmPoster is a piece of interactive print that lets you manipulate music by drawing on the surface of a poster that is hooked up to your computer.

 
 
  Early experiments looking at the use of pencil mark making as an interface element. The carbon in pencil graphite completes a circuit but creates a resistance. This can be measured to give an analogue reading which in turn can be used to control other elements of the system.  
 

I was interested in combining the functional techniques of electronics with the more aesthetic values of print. I also found that value could be added to the objects content, digital music. In this ipod saturated age, it is easy to lose the enjoyable relationship between music and graphics.

I was also interested by the conflicting messages about value that the posters gave out. On the one hand, they were nice, handmade prints, normally a thing of value. On the other they invited you to scrawl all over them to play with "cheap" musical loops, lowering them to a more disposable level.

  
  Mini interfaces were created by building up areas of conductivity, graphics, and interaction. Varnish was used to make certain parts of the posters inaccessible to the marks from a pencil.  
 

People will always try to break things. This is a shot of one of the posters after being exhibited in the 2004 Interaction Design interim show. The results are enaging pieces of collaborative graphics which provide a record and tell a story about the way that they were used.