Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

Objects in Flux
on their relation to the world (Marx and Elster,
1986).
5.6 Transformative journeys
This research has involved a six-year engage-
ment with the practice of object modification.
Due to my knowledge of the field my role
could be described as observant participant
(Kaminski, 2004), however this was not a role
I could simply step into. Becoming an object
modifier was a transformative process. In A
Hacker Manifesto, McKenzie Wark states that
‘Production producers not only the object of the
production process but also the producer as
subject’ (2002). As I explored the limits of the
object I also explored my own limits, develop-
ing new skills and new modes of behaviour. The
challenge that practices of hacking, modding
and DIY bring to society, and their ability to
bring about previously unrealised configura-
tions of thoughts and things, is not just directed
outward to the world, but also turns inward
towards the practitioner themselves. Practices
of object modification challenge the individual
to be all that they can be, to explore the limits
of what is possible within their own lives. This is
not, however, an exercise in self-improvement.
The practice is not concerned with making a
better person, or a better practitioner: it simply
seeks difference. The practice seeks to distin-
guish what is from what might be, to abstract
normalised relations and test new modes of
being.
My engagement in this practice cannot be iso-
lated to the research project. Temporally unfold-
ing and spatially dispersed, the practice makes
itself evident in my conversations with friends,
my choice of leisure activities, my acts of con-
100
Interpreting mouse movement on the Mac (whether ADB or
the more common USB variety) is possible via the application
programming interface (API). I’m using Objective-C
with Apple’s Xcode development environment, so to detect
mouse clicks I use the following handler:
- (void)mouseDown:(NSEvent *)theEvent
To check whether the left or right mouse button was pressed,
you can interrogate the event for a type, such as:
if [theEvent type] == NSRightMouseDown {
}
-- do something responding to a right click
I wanted to implement the standard Macintosh approach of
allowing control-clicks to register as right mouse clicks, so my
code looks like this:
- (void)mouseDown:(NSEvent *)theEvent
{
if (([theEvent type] == NSRightMouseDown) ||
([theEvent modifierFlags] & NSControlKeyMask)) {
}
[self rightClickAction];
} else {
}
[self leftClickAction];
This code calls the handlers rightClickAction and leftClick-
Action, these navigate the user through the MP3 player’s
graphical user interface (GUI).
Responding to the mouse button wasn’t crucial for my
project (a similar response could be achieved by checking
for key presses on the PowerBook’s internal keyboard) but
using a mouse allowed me to track the B&O’s slider movement.
I managed this with the help of a perforated metal
strip I pulled from an old daisy-wheel printer.