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PERCOLATING HUMAN COMPUTER INTERACTION

Percolating HCI is an ongoing project featuring a coffee gadget interfaced with DDR2 unbuffered DIMMS. The project focuses on a custom built personal computer (PC) named Coffeematic PC. This PC, which is self-destructive by design but finds harmony in trials, examines digital flows from perspectives of percolation and design. The following is a catalog of how Coffeematic PC works, how it extends headroom within operating environments, and how it is percolating processes beyond its configuration. Coffeematic PC is part of a lineage of coffee maker computers. There have been 5 users including myself who have made one. But, Coffeematic PC is different.

Profound and poetically articulated. Elegant and assertive. Highly scaleable with dynamic acceleration. No. These do not describe Coffeematic PC or its peers (one of those phrases describes a bottle of wine.) To understand Coffeematic PC I should explain custom computer modification. Custom computer modification describes obtaining and assembling parts of a computer like the motherboard, RAM, graphics card, and thermal paste. Assembling a computer offers better performance for the $, exact customization, a medium for creative expression, and the feeling of "ya... I made that". A teenager or software engineer can build a computer. It requires technical knowledge and varying levels of craft. A custom built computer can be basic and functional, or an elaborate, absurd, spinning piece of art. Coffeematic PC falls somewhere in that spectrum.

Percolating Human Computer Interaction

↑ Coffeematic PC's case is made from a vintage coffee maker. It's a common prop in movies.

The history of custom computer modification isn't too long. In this article I'll talk about machines spanning from 2002 to 2024, but custom PC modification goes back to 1995 when early computer games were released. Saavy experimenters upgraded clunky PCs with increased airflow, graphics and sound cards, and by 2002 they were using Dremels, custom circuits, and cart wheels (can you do one?) to pimp their rigs. Saavy experimenters do the same today. The impulse to create absurd computers has not changed that much over time. This is a group of curious risk-takers seeking innovation, a little attention, and support from a community. Though the desire to innovate has not changed, tech and culture has. Only a very odd person would say they "Pimped their rig" in 2024. This article will discuss the lineage of coffee maker computers and a mysterious 15 year gap in their creation - revealing insight to the culture of innovation among creators and the culture of tech. Before diving into that I want to focus on Coffeematic PC for a moment.

This is how Coffeematic PC works. The computer is fully functional. The coffee maker is too, it percolates Java like a regular coffee maker. Very hot Java. Computers usually use fans or liquid cooling systems to reduce heat. Coffeematic PC uses the hot Java it brews to heat? cool? caffeinate? the computer. A pump takes the hot, caffenated slurry (~90C/194F) and circulates it thru two radiators sitting on top of Coffeematic PC's crown -> down to a central processing unit (CPU) tucked within an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard snugly strapped to Coffeematic PC's athletic back. Java continues through an artery returning to Coffeematic PC's reproduced caraffe. The process repeats until Java is integrated with end-user or the machine is powered off.

↑ Coffeematic PC has a dedicated pump to aggressively dispense Java for user.

CPU's are meant to be cool and Java hot. Despite circulating hot Java, Coffeematic PC does not crash. To understand more, I wrote command line code to gather data on Coffeematic PC every 5 seconds, and monitored Coffeematic PC for 75 minutes while I did stuff on my lean mean percolating machine... wait... The graph below shows the results. The machine is just barely non-destructive. Coffeematic PC's CPU, body, and circulatory system eventually find equalibrium. A warm 33C/91F - amazingly close to the temperature of the slurry that flows through you and me.

An important part of this project is the lineage of coffee maker computers. Before discussing that, this is how how Coffeematic PC was made. The build is a mix of discarded electronics and newly purchased hardware, pumps, and radiators. The motherboard, CPU, RAM, and graphics card are from the mid 2000's and were sourced from a recycling center. This is a parts list for Coffeematic PC.

I spent about a month designing and building Coffeematic PC with the help from my beautiful fiance. The build traverses time. The coffee maker is from the late 1970's, the motherboard, CPU, and graphics card from the 2000's, and the SSD, operating sysytem, and hardware from the today's (2020's). The General Electric coffee maker needed only a minor repair of replacing a small vinyl tube that had cracked. It takes awhile to brew a pot of coffee, but once it is brewed... it tastes like coffee made from a plastic coffee maker from the 1970's. I'lllll drink it!

The lineage of coffee maker computer builds spans 22 years with a curious 15 year gap in the middle. I'm not the first person to synthesize a coffee maker and a computer. But, I think I am the first to use hot Java as a cooling method. The graph below shows the lineage of coffee maker computers. There are a total of 5. In 2002 Nick Pelas built the first ever coffee maker computer named The Caffeine Machine. Then, the builds went cold for 15 years until 2018, when a company named Zotac made a coffee maker computer to feature in a trade show. One year after in 2019, a man whose username is Logarythm made the Mr. Coffee PC. This unassuming build is perhaps my favorite. 5 years later, after COVID-19, NerdForge, a youtube channel specializing on fun builds, built a "PC that makes coffee". During this time I was making Coffeematic PC.

Why is there a 15 year gap between the first coffee maker computer and the rest? Were people tired of drinking coffee? I don't think so. We're people tired of building fun computers? Were they distracted? Could they not afford it? I'm not sure. But something is wrong. There should be a steady output of absurd coffee maker computers being made. What happened in those 15 years? To look into it I created the graph above. It shows a timeline of coffee maker computers along with important events compiled from the The Timeline of Computer History from the Computer History Museum. Of course, there are many important things that happened worldwide between 2002 and 2017 like war, natural disasters, financial crisis, shootings, refugee crisis, and the apocolypse in 2012 determined by the end of the Mayan calendar. Its too much to capture in this dinky graph. But maybe focusing on tech, and the culture of tech, can reveal something about this large gap in absurd creativity. Do you see any trends?

Percolating Human Computer Interaction
Peroclating Human Computer Interaction in as ongoing project. My focus now is hand drafting visualizations of data and infrographics generated by Coffeematic PC. I'm curious to see what emerges from creative investigation and visualizing data within the 15 year gap in coffee maker computers. Meanwhile, I'm interested in a book called "Hand Made" by Steffen Kohn and Nestor Sire that catalogs and creatively investigates users and makers in Cuba. My research so far has led me to builds in the US (NerdForge in Sweden) but each area has a unique timeline and culture of tech. This page is continually added to, revised, and built on. If you are reading this and know of a coffee maker computer build that I have not noticed PLEASE let me know.