Hacking as Art Practice:
Part of the curriculum of ‘Interactive Digital Arts (ARTD252)’ at the University of Oregon is to teach students that tools aren’t confined to their intended purposes. Digital Arts instructor John Park holds six workshops per year in re-purposing electronics for more creative uses than were initially intended. Such projects include removing the circuitry from $10 USB keyboards to bridge the physical world with computer interfaces (as seen in the images above), using Nintendo Wii-Remotes to create interactive projected animations using its built-in infrared camera, and connecting up sensors to Arduino microcontrollers so students can merge Flash animations with physical-space interactions.

These workshops are offered to all students in the Interactive Digital Arts class, which is a foundations digital arts course open to all majors.

Photo notes: Above photos taken on April 30th, 2010 for the USB Keyboard Hacking workshop held in Eugene, OR. Picture in photos from left to right, top to bottom: Ethan Ouimet, Kento Yuasa, Peter Pazderski, Aaron Alstott, Charly McCombs, & Andi Castle.