Okay, so I'm doing a project for my 3d Design class. The assignment is to make a self-portrait, but not in a literal sense. Instead of creating a human form, it's supposed to represent an idea that is important to me or represents a group that I belong to. For instance, I could represent something that applies to my generation, race, gender, sexual preference—you get the picture. The sculpture must fit inside a 16x16" frame made of 1x4" wood (so the frame is 4" deep). I'm allowed to break the depth borders, but not the height or width.

My idea is to portray how everything that my generation experiences can be—and often is—stored in the form of data. To do this, I plan to put actual computer parts in the frame, and show them transforming into things that represent what one may experience. For instance, I may have a CD drive with an IDE ribbon cable coming out the back, which then "transforms" into five wires to represent a musical staff, then putting notes on said staff. I have plenty of old computer parts, and a bit of experience building computers, so this much should be simple.

Here's the problem: I want to make it a fully functional computer. I want to put a power button on the front of the frame, which can actually turn the computer on, spin the hard drive, and power on LEDs and fans. This complicates things a bit. Here are a few specific ideas I'm having problems with:

1. I'd like to split up the motherboard into four parts in order to put them on the inside walls of the frame. However, the motherboard obviously won't work if I do this. I'm wondering, though, if there is a way to reconnect everything. I know there are tiny circuits on the surface of the motherboard—would it function properly if I solder wire to the circuits to complete them, and is this even feasible? If not, I can leave the motherboard intact and put it in the back.

2. I think it would be interesting to set small (laptop?) speakers in the front of the frame, which play a sound file when the computer turns on. How would I go about connecting these speakers to the motherboard? Also, is there some way to make a computer automatically play a sound file on boot?

3. I'd like the sound file to be a recording of a reading of something—a poem, an excerpt from a book, something like that. If you know of any short passages that would go well with my topic (anything that portrays technology becoming an increasingly big part of people's lives), please let me know.

4. I would also like this reading to be read by a stiff, robotic sort of voice (like those things that read stuff from the computer for deaf people), and slowly change to my voice (natural, human sounding). If anyone knows how to make this transition, please do explain.

5. Where, exactly, would I find simple LEDs and fans, and what would be the best kind for this project? I live in the USA, so if you know of any major chains that carry these products, please let me know.

I also just need general information on how to connect everything. If you have any other ideas—creative or technical—or know of any problems I may encounter that I haven't taken into account, I'd like to hear about them. Sorry about the long post, and thanks for reading this far. I look forward to hearing your opinions.

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This idea sounds entirely infeasible, but the default Microsoft Sam would be good for a robotic voice.

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Putting a working computer inside a frame and making it look nice is pretty feasible, but the rest is, indeed, really ambitious. I'll just finish what I can depending on how much information I get and how much time I have, I guess.

I'll look into that voice, also.

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1) Just use a microATX board or other - it's feasible if the parts are sold separately, which they're not - trying to take a part a mobo built in a factory intended to not come apart would not work.
2) The sound file bit would have to be done via the underlying operating system. However, if you claim to have the slightest bit of experience w/computer hardware, linking the system speaker for reporting error via a "beep", could be altered to play a sound clip on regular launch (i.e.: On launch, play beep X, which would be translated to the intended audio file).
3) Make something up - "The future is coming. The future is now;"
4) Sounds like you want a theme of your own - for robotic, http://espeak.sourceforge.net/ is nice since it's GPL
5) Radio Shack/Microcenter

Now, for your idea that displays things, here's a clever plan:

Setup a clear crystal box of some sort. In this box, setup wireframe which will rotate into images depending on hardware changes. Neon lighting would look quite wonderful. The box would look spectacular if suspended via semi-transparent fiber-lit wire, above the open-case computer. Just all the more impressive!

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