Backtalk: Tracking Electronic Waste
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slice.mit.edu
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What happens to old cell phones, laptops, and other electronic dodads that are out of date to Americans’ tastes? MIT’s Senseable City Lab wants to know—so they installed tracking technology on 40 laptops and sent some to an urban e-waste disposal center and others were donated to developing nations. Their project, Backtalk, is getting results.
You can see videos and other materials online or, if you are in New York, the project is currently exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in “Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.”
Here’s part of the project description:
“We turned used laptops and other electronic devices into independent reporters that document their ‘second life,’ sending us images and GPS coordinates from remote places. The information they report back offers first-hand perspectives—glimpses into e-waste recycling villages, local thrift stores, public schools, and libraries—that prompt a reflection on our society’s relationship with our electronic devices.”
Comments
Havin Linder
Mon, 12/16/2013 8:57am
This is very interesting, may be most was send to waste recycling villages, cell phone and computer update very soon, most people only use their equipment 2-3 years, then replace it by new one.
Dianne Griffen
Wed, 06/21/2017 8:35am
We should care about where old devices go -- they contain precious metals (that we're running out of) that can be reused in new gadgets, and they cause incredible amounts of pollution when not recycled properly, as happens in e-waste dumps. Why don't more of us care about where gadgets go to die, when gadgets are both a major part of our culture today and will be part of our lives for the forseeable future? It seems a little insane. No, it seems a lot insane.