The Kill Button (Mouse Hack) - Connors Eilersen

Have you ever been working with a computer, and no matter what you do it doesn't want to cooperate? It is from this problem that the Kill Button is born.

My previous idea for a mouse hack was to make a simulated pipe organ using multiple mice in sequence, which are then controlled by the processing library ProControl. However, after much coding being done on my desktop, i decide to test it on my laptop (the machine i was going to use to present it), and the computer refused to respond to multiple mice inputs. After many hours of banging my head against a brick wall (metaphorically of course), I decided to change my focus.

The Kill Button, the spawn of my anger and frustration towards technology that refuses to listen to me, if my project for the mouse hack. When it is plugged in, it runs some code that causes a digitized face to appear on the screen. When the big red button is pressed, it causes to computer to enter an immediate state of shutdown. However, while you are deciding to press it, the computerized face tries to convince you to not "murder" it. The voice for the computer are composed of sampled clips from the video game Portal. The piece is a commentary on how reliant we are on technology and artificial intelligence. The piece if heavily reliant on the back story, in which anger at technology caused a device to be created that essential kills the machine.