Monitorhead: re-personalising the pc

An alternative to email. Inspired by the Glomi style of Marque Cornblatt (check out his short film "Bubble" on http://www.marquecornblatt.com/) and Canti, the robot/space pirate from the anime series Furi Kuri (or Fuli Kuli).
Great for popping over to see some mates.

Step 1 Items

Defunkt monitor (found in skip) - could also be done with a tv, fishtank or a cardboard box if you are feeling ghetto enough. I could tell the monitor had died because when i picked it up, water came streaming out.

Plastic Coathanger (i swear these things breed in my wardrobe O_o i keep finding more and more of them)

Pipe Insulation (Left behind by a mate when she was making some foam nunchucks for her boyf - possible instructable coming soon)

Bin Bag (found in kitchen)

Random pieces of 1" thick foam (found in a skip too unsuprisingly) - you will need a piece about 50 cm x 10 cm and another about 20 cm square. Its best to just have a big sheet handy and cut to fit... you'll see

Tools:
£8 soldering iron that you aren't too fond of
Things for getting into the monitor - phillips/ flathead screwdrivers, pliers and wire cutters
Scalpel and Stanley knife
Gaffer tape

Something that nearly ressembles common sense
A well ventialted area

Comments

[Marble of Doom]

I saw the Blue Man Group do this, they mounted lcd screens in the case also.

[lcitron]

i used a similar technique

[amdead]

reminds me of jack black in computerman lol

[firesketch]

Great idea man! I might try adding a load of LED's and a microcontroller for smilies! Then look through a periscope! :P And maybe stick a piece of paper on so people can write their messages. And then... a voice changer so I have a robot voice... And a laptop so I can browse Ibles on the go. (But this may need special mind control equipment... and probably a pair of glasses :/) Start up a whole "the corporations turning us into robots" thing.

[firesketch]

Hey, I could write "the corporations turning us into robots" (for example) in keyboard keys on my shirt... Man, I'm so doing this, anyone want to join me?

[imonsei]

haha. If any of you guys have tried the game "city of heroes" (or villains) then you'd laugh your ass off. There's one of the mobs that's a TV head. literally a big guy with a TV as a head :D Also you could cosplay as the robot from FLCL anime quite easily once you have made this Instructable. :) Love it!

[imonsei]

woops. just realized that FLCL is the same anime as furi kuri you mentioned in the beginning. guess furi kuri is the way the japanese would say FLCL in romanji

[imonsei]

also, MAX HEADROOM!!!!!!! :D yaaaay

[Bigbad2E]

Didn't Jack Black do this?

http://channel101.com/shows/show.php?show_id=1

[TangMu]

Awesome! There are a lot of similar ideas floating out in the ether, i only got hit by a few of them

[andresm]

LOL, a bout weeks ago, i was on holiday and in a small town there where loads of plays and people where advertising different ways, two of them where on stilts with flat screen monitors as masks_{, but those where working... so it showed a face and the play}

[maker001]

this looks like a great idea for halloween

[TangMu]

Yeah, you could go as the Blue Screen Of Death! Strike fear into the hearts of PC users around the world!

[maker001]

sweet

[sicsick6]

wow... ur a cyborg

[Rowen27]

another great instructable, very creative! Jen

[FrenchCrawler]

Nice... Perhaps in a later build, you could use a 1 way (or is it 2 way?) mirror so that you can see out, but people can't see in. I'd suggest placing a piece of thin, strong plastic between you and the mirror if you decide to go that route :)

[TangMu]

I was thinking of a sheet of perspex, with a thin layer of plastic sheet on my side so i could still see out, but because the inside is dark people wouldnt see in. It would be really tempting then to wander around with a drywipe marker and get people to write their messages actually on the screen. Its all held down with gaffer anyway so its fairly flexible to re-arrange.

[ongissim]

How do you get air?

[TangMu]

The hole at the bottomis larger than my neck so air can get in that way, but the monitor housing itself has loads of little air holes in it to stop the crt overheating back when it worked.