Sunday, August 17, 2008

Man creates motherboard walls

If you're a geek, you've probably got some decoration in your home environment that reveals your tendancies: I'm talking about Space Invaders fridge magnets, Curse of Monkey Island posters, and a papercraft Companion Cube. The chances are that you haven't gone this far, however: motherboard walls.

Neatorama reports on a monumental achievement in geeky artwork at the Carnegie Mellon University. Chris Harrison and friend Aubrey built a collage out of old motherboards, which caught the eye of Carnegie Mellon staffer Scott Hudson – who, rather than call the men in white coats, commissioned the pair to build a much bigger version for his electronics lab.

By purchasing bulk lots of old and/or broken motherboards from eBay Harrison was able to amass enough motherboards – approximately 68 kilos worth – to cover the walls in motherboards. Sort of a three-dimensional, spiky wallpaper.

Harrison and Aubrey took around six hours to make each wall, attempting to distribute the colours in a pleasing pattern as well as mounting each board at slightly different heights to further increase the artistic effect.

As you can see from the photo – more of which are available on Harrison's blog – the finished walls are pretty impressive, although a trifle dark for my liking. I'd also be worried about the sharp little bits sticking up from the motherboards themselves – even though they're unlikely to do you any harm, it could ruin that nice new Angora sweater if you get a little too close.

Tempted to do something similar in your own computer room, or is it taking the whole geek-chic decorating thing a trifle too far? Share your thoughts over in the forums.

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