Why not create the wooden Guillotine computer workspace?

Being a man with an inap­pro­pri­ately dispro­por­tionate level of nostalgia, I’ve always been a fan of all things old and classic. Also being one who embraces all things new and tech­no­logical, I would very natu­rally be drawn to the designs of the Guil­lotine. As such, I found myself researching wooden keyboards. Then the idea struck me: why not make the mouse out of wood too? And what about my monitors? After all, it was done in a film already.

In the film The Final Cut, one of the main props that was created for the film was the Guil­lotine. The Guil­lotine is a computer designed for cutting and editing the footage imported from a decedent’s Zoe Implant. Consid­ering that the Guil­lotine is one of the most important props to the film, it was designed with great attention to detail. The Guil­lotine is a computer housed in wood, tech­nology that is “couched in the familiar” as production designer James Chinlund puts it.

And using the Guil­lotine as an inspi­ration, I started to fantasize about some day creating my own version of the Guil­lotine. Appar­ently the wood used for it was oak. I’d set up my own computer work­space similar to the Guil­lotine. Let’s go through this step by step, first with the displays.

I’d use three monitors: no need for the two smaller monitors that appear in the film. A large center monitor, maybe a 30″ one, will serve as a main screen that handles primary activity such as web browsing, watching videos in fullscreen, gaming, Photoshop, and working on docu­ments. A 24″ monitor on the left will serve more static needs, primarily iTunes and opening folders, as well as IMs. Also a large calendar and clock/date display. And lastly a 24″ monitor on the right will display things like TweetDeck, Microsoft Outlook, and a secondary browser. I do like how the wood housing the monitors is carved to give the impression that it is a frame for a piece of art.

Then comes the keyboard. A nice wooden keyboard with keys flush with the surface of the table. Keys should have their letters carved in. Having the keyboard set into desk itself has a couple of advan­tages. Firstly, you don’t see the ugly cable running to the computer. Secondly, you don’t need a wrist rest.

I would consider using a trackball as a mouse. This affords me a more inte­grated look, as if every­thing were all one piece. However, I would probably want to switch over to an actual mouse should I want to game. Either way, I’d leave the trackball off to the right where my hand would be, as opposed to in the center as on the Guillotine.

I could also mount slot-loading optical drives facing up to emulate the way Zoe implants are inserted when read. Two drives on the right hand side should do just fine. The only thing is I don’t know if mounting them that way would affect perfor­mance, though I don’t imagine they would. A media card reader would be installed on the left side, aligned hori­zon­tally and oriented verti­cally the same way the optical media drives are. But with dust a concern, perhaps a sliding cover could be worked into the design.

I’d also want a space to put my laptop. So in the same space that the Guil­lotine laptop is docked, I would carve out a space for the laptop so that the bottom half sits flush with the surface of the table. Because I don’t intend to ever have a laptop that is capable of being a desktop replacement, it would not be inte­grated into the system, which means I would still be using it all on its own, through the built-in keyboard, touchpad, and display. This is actually some­thing I tried with my MacBook Air (I like iCal better than Outlooks calendar program), but my Dell 2408WPF isn’t tall enough that I can see past the MacBook Air’s screen when it’s set down on my desk.

As for the jog dials that are built into the Guil­lotine, well, I don’t have any use for them. I do own the Shut­tlePro, but I don’t envision needing to cut and edit video: I’m not a profes­sional. And even as a hobbyist, I don’t have nearly enough footage to work on to justify building the jog dials into my workspace.

On to the USB ports. I would build that into surface of the desk, again some kind of sliding cover. Addi­tionally, I would probably build an iPhone dock into the surface. I’m thinking some­where on the left but closer towards the center (while still under­neath the left monitor) to double as a clock.

The actual guts of the computer would be installed onto a tray that slides out from the inside of the table. Actually, consid­ering the height of graphics cards and every­thing, the table would have to be rather thick in order for it to have space to house the guts of a computer, so I’d probably just install it into a drawer-like compartment that slides out from under­neath the table. This makes it much easier to service than an actual case.

Speakers would ideally be mounted onto the wooden cabinets that house my monitors. Rear monitors, well, I guess they’ll be on stands, or mounted on brackets installed in the ceiling.  What type of wood would I use?  I’m thinking a very dark walnut, and no shiny lacquer finishes or anything.  Just nice and smooth, matte.

And I think that about covers it…someday, I’ll bring this vision of mine into reality. Until then, I’ll just be looking at these wooden computer peripherals.

Links:
Wooden mouse / keyboard for the budget-minded set
Japanese wooden computer peripheral products
Engadget — Wooden input peripherals

P.S.  I think it’s funny how Contour Design rebranded their Shut­tlePro and made up some story about it being a medical device now.