Speakers in the Boots

I decided that I wanted to use the boots as a kind of speaker to play wartime songs. This is because I think it would add much more of a wartime atmosphere when presented. I also want to include more of a product side to the project and I think that by having the boots as speakers they are more of a sellable product. This was also another opportunity to alter the purpose of the original object, which were basic boots, simply used to get the job done, but adding the speaker element makes it in to something almost opposite to this.

            Turning the boots in to the speaker was actually quite simple, but I did have to change my initial plan for it. I had intended to get a pair of small speakers and plant those in to the boots, and playing the songs from an iPod. However the speakers I bought for this were much larger than I thought they would be and didn’t fit in the boots, so I bought a smaller single speaker, but this meant only having one boot play music. Although I would have liked both boots to play the music this would have been much more expensive and had more wires, which I was trying to avoid anyway.

            The new speaker fitted in to the boot easily and I found a tiny iPod shuffle, which the music was loaded on to so everything fitted inside the boot without distorting the shape. One thing I though at this stage was that the appearance of the modern looking, black, plastic speakers didn’t really fit in, so I used a crochet sample to cover the top. I was worried that this may affect the sound but it didn’t so that was ideal.

            I think that doing this has helped the piece feel more authentic because of the music. It also satisfies me in the sense that I want to make products and this is a little closer to doing that and making a more interesting, interactive show.  I am aware that if I had planned to do this from the offset of making the boots, I would have been able to incorporate the speakers more thoroughly than what they are now, but I think this design works well. One thing with this is that during the show I will have to make sure there is enough battery in the iPod and the speakers, but the battery life should be enough to last to the end of each day.