Nail Controller

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Interactive sculpture, game mod

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Rusted Nails, reclaimed wood, insulation foam, dead plants, various spray paints, Arduino, CRT television, Excitebike

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2019

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Nail Controller is a gaming intervention that allows participants to control Excitebike for the NES by touching clusters of rusted nails. The game is played on an old CRT television. The controller itself is constructed of trash, reclaimed wood, insulation foam, and decaying plants. Through a collage a found materials, Nail Controller rethinks modes of comfortable gameplay by encouraging players to navigate their hands across the sharp and pointed surfaces of nails. In doing so, the controller opens up the body to new forms of participatory engagement, persuading players to not only think carefully about where to place their hands, but also about the velocity at which they touch each “button” upon the controller. More so, players must invent novel ways to navigate the derelict interface, reflecting upon the ways in which video games typically organize us as gaming subjects.

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Exhibited at:

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Ground Level Platform, Strange Media, Chicago, IL, November-December 2019.