Meet RUO: Desktop Audio Streaming Console. I believe I achieved the simple goal that I set at the onset of this project which was to put a modern twist on the designs that used to be a huge part of Scandinavian home audio aesthetics. After MP3s and streaming rendered physical media such as vinyl, cassettes and CDs functionally obsolete, audio manufacturers shifted away from tactile, kinetic design, often to prioritize portability and convenience. Head-turning products like B&O’s Beosound 9000: https://youtu.be/uVzdHwU4CDc?t=2 slowly died out, as did the connection that casual listeners had with their music. My final project is intended to be a possible answer for the question: How might companies like B&O navigate reconnecting audio listeners to their music, and to their kinetic designs, in the streaming age. While Scandinavian minimalism and modernism were aesthetics that I was aiming for when designing my device, my project turned out to be slightly more expressive than I intended. The front facia is pretty dialed back, but from other angles RUO feels a little more sci-fi, carrying elements of retrofuturism, and structural expressionism. ‘Ruotare’ – Italian for ‘rotate’
