This past weekend the internet was abuzz as Kanye West held listening parties in New York, Detroit and Chicago for an upcoming album, meant to be released on Sunday but yet to be seen. For much of my life, Kanye’s music and approach to creative output has been inspiring — and as Yeezy Season approaches, I remembered that I had kept the box for a pair of shoes I purchased a year ago. Seems like an appropriate time to put it to use.
For this project, I decided to start building a MIDI Controller out of the shoebox. I’m going to be working on the wiring and Arduino programming this week to ensure the piece is functional. For now, I prototyped the buttons and knobs.
When I work on the next set of steps, I know I’ll need to do a couple of things to ensure the knobs and buttons work properly, both electrically and vis-a-vis user experience: 1) place a firm platform underneath the buttons so that they click when pressed 2) Screw potentiometers through a second, thick piece of cardboard placed inside of the box to ensure the knobs turn properly.
I’ll likely create the platform mentioned above with acrylic in standoffs, creating housing for the circuit board and wires that will all live in the inner shoebox. I may need to further alter the inner shoe box to ensure that it doesn’t bump into mounted items when pulled out of the larger box.