QuakeCon is over. By now, you’ve probably perused several hundred thousand BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer; basically a gigantic, nonstop four-day LAN party) case mod galleries. You’ve seen the competition winners from every conceivable angle. You’ve ogled the Star Wars action figures, giant NES controllers, weathered Fallout terminals, and very uncomfortable fish alike. But come on: that’s standard flashy case mod fare. This one, however, was created on the fly, during the show, by hundreds of attendees. Its core component? Post-It Notes.
So I wonder: when people like Bit-Tech post comprehensive instructions on how to build incredibly lavish case mods, does anyone actually go ahead and do it? Have you ever gone and modded up your case or monitor to look like something it isn’t? I’ve got some nice stickers on mine… but that’s about it.
Biomodd is a work of installation sculpture, biology, case-modding, and game design by a chap called Angelo Vermeulen. The idea is to create an ongoing relationship between an enclosed ecosystem in the case, and the games being played on the hardware. Vermeulen explains his idea in an interview over on WMMNA:
“It’s a human sized transparent structure that contains several suspended computer components and different types of plant life such as green algae and vines. The computer runs Linux (Fedora) and its monitor will be suspended downwards to illuminate a bed of fast-sprouting seeds. Basically, we’re testing how close we can bring together the biological and electronic world. At the same time we’re also exploring potential game concepts.”
It’s a little unclear what the game concepts entail, because Vermeulen’s project is not only interdisciplinary, but also ongoing and nomadic between various installation spaces. Nevertheless, the core idea (as outlined in this video) is to create a virtual work that is linked to and representative of the biological ecosystem in the case. Playing will allow some manipulation of the conditions the organisms find themselves in, and the condition of the organisms has ramifications for what goes on in the game world.
