Art Practice • Lalya Gaye

Fuse Beads NES Controller

Posted by Lalya on 15 December 2008⋅ Comment⋅ Share⋅  Email ⋅  Print
Tags: crafts, Creative Hacking, DIY, Physical Computing

As a submission to a CHI 2009 workshop, I (Lalya) made a game controller with fuse beads that looks like a fridge magnet made of fuse beads that looks like an actual Nintendo NES controller.

Besides testing out how to combine a particular crafting technique (fuse beads) with standard physical computing tools (Arduino etc), the resulting controller aims to leak some pixel aesthetics onto the physical world (ref: Ewa Wojtowicz), all with a touch of nostalgic old-school geekiness.

The CHI workshop to which the artefact was submitted is called “DIY for CHI: Methods, Communities, and Values of Reuse and Customization” and aims to “explore DIY as an important alternative design practice”. It required to send submissions by means of DIY instructions on www.instructables.com. Therefore, you can learn how to make your own fuse beads NES controller (and how to make it control your iTunes) by following this instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Fuse_Beads_NES_Controller/
Just don’t use too much heat on the iron or the beads will melt down completely!

Links
* DIY for CHI workshop
* Fuse Beads NES Controller instructable
* CHI 2009