Research
Experimental visuals & installation,
incorporating visuals created with creative code
All projects -> Back
This work merges energy, exchange, and connection to demonstrate how human experience and digital infrastructure share a foundational symmetry. By colliding together these seemingly distant concepts, this project invites a reimagining of cables not as trivial objects but as vivid representations of the digital world’s structure and interconnectedness of the universe.
Cables embody modern development, digitalisation and functionality, yet their presence also can appear messy and disordered— a duality that mirrors the complexities of the digital systems they support. We connect the world with cables. Could they be one of the most crucial and fundamental objects of our time? How many cables are truly enough to establish a connection?
The project centres on connection as force so impactful that our world revolves around it, with wires and cables physically symbolising this concept. It seeks to make technology visible, transforming connection into a tangible form to encourage reflection of the usage of our sacred energy.
A part of those connections is brought by the Internet. As Tabita Rezaire, a french new media artist presents it, The Internet merely stitches information together, functioning as a reflection of human knowledge rather than an all-knowing entity, how we see it. However, it only knows what the its users know and have put into it, managing control over the information. In the everyday life when we would want to know something we would turn to the Internet, rather than turning inside into the transcendent powerful database within ourselves. This reliance has led to a diminished engagement with our internal consciousness, where there isn’t any kind of limit over the information.
Proving that the digitalisation and our awareness are in parallel, the internet could be compared to telepathy, a once-widespread energy- efficient technology that served the same purpose — creating connection but without consuming natural resources in the way modern technology does.
RADOST BOZHKOVA 2024©
By bridging graphic design with industrial and conceptual aesthetics, the project shed light on the often overlooked yet essential infrastructure of the digital age and connectivity. Cables, as physical representations of the digitalisation, reveal the systems that enable modern connection. Cables come in diverse forms, from basic power lines to sophisticated smart cables. The most popular smart cables such as USB, HDMI, and power chargers contain code and electronics that allow them to perform specific functions, enabling features like data transfer, video output, power delivery, and many more. These cables are designed with embedded chips that help with communication between the devices they connect.
How I represented the function of the three types of smart cables:
To represent the functionality of the USB Power Delivery code into a visual output, we simulate the USB-C PD power negotiation visually. The idea is to use the visual representation of “points” to show voltage and current negotiation, with the points’ movement and behaviour corresponding to the changes in voltage or current levels. To transform the functionality of the HDMI active cable code into creative visual narrative, we visualise the process of signal amplification in a way that reflects the logic of the original HDMI active cable code. Lastly, to show the functionality of the power charger, we make the motion of the lines to simulate the the “flow of energy” in the cable.
This artistic exploration seeks to unravel the hidden language coded into these cables and transform their technical parts into visual narratives through creative coding. Creating visuals with the code in cables that establishes connection.