The afterlives of digital rubbish [Talk]
By:
Nicolas NovaBroadcast on:
Sep 20, 2020
Among the various waste streams that our companies produce, e-waste (electronic waste) is the one that has been growing rapidly for several years, due to the constant replacement of telephones and laptops, televisions and game consoles and other miscellaneous peripherals. This kind of digital rubbish, which remains when their use is over, are generally discarded, sometimes stuffed in a box in the attic, sometimes in the trash, or in more or less serious recycling circuits. In addition to the refurbishment of digital objects such as smartphones, computers or connected objects, many unique and original reuse practices exist to make these machines last, or reinvent them: techniques for the conservation or enhancement of past machines, reuse of parts and components taken from unused devices to create low-cost information systems, electronic craftsmanship aimed at customising, adapting or creating digital objects in limited editions, competitions, festivals and workshops for the design of video games, demos or musical content on computers and consoles from the 1980s and 1990s, etc. On the basis of an ongoing investigation of the re-use practices of digital objects, this presentation will address the anthropological issues of the second life of digital objects. In doing so, it will address ways of returning to the idea of progress, of questioning it and of finding original avenues by integrating the sustainability of our digital devices.