Hinges attach the front panel of my synth to the case; a purposeful design decision both from a construction standpoint but also to inform the user experience. Too many of the devices that we encounter in daily life are black boxes, in that we have an understanding of the inputs and the outputs but not of the processes through which these inputs are transmuted to the outputs. The term black box is a recognised phrase within the field of system analysis, often utilised within computing. It is a method of studying a system without delving into the innerworkings, noting only the causality between stimuli and response. From phones to transistors or diodes, this is a manner of describing a great many technological systems that are regularly encountered; my understanding of electronics, for example, is heavily reliant on certain black boxes. I do not fully understand exactly how an opamp works internally, but have a strong enough grasp on how it takes inputs and what appears at the outputs. This is entirely enough knowledge for me to use them well, and to create larger systems such as synthesisers. This phrase can refer to more abstract systems too:

“The child who tries to open a door has to manipulate the handle (the input) so as to produce the desired movement at the latch (the output); and he has to learn how to control the one by the other without being able to see the internal mechanism that links them. In our daily lives we are confronted at every turn with systems whose internal mechanisms are not fully open to inspection, and which must be treated by the methods appropriate to the Black Box.”

W. Ross Ashby, ‘An Introduction to Cybernetics’

Whilst black boxes are both useful and necessary in todays world of hyper-specialisation, I seek to make visible that which others in my field would readily hide. I would like to encourage curiosity, a pedagogical approach to electronics in which the user feels like the innerworkings are not locked away behind 12 tiny screws, but instead laid bare infront of them. Rewarding curiosity, encouraging repair and modification, these things are essential to creating the type of investigative mindset that I aspire to foster in my creations.