This is a study of the material life of information and its devices; of electronic waste in its physical and electronic incarnations; a cultural and material mapping of the spaces where electronics in the form of both hardware and information accumulate, break down, or are stowed away. Electronic waste occurs not just in the form of discarded computers but also as a scatter of information devices, software, and systems that are rendered obsolete and fail. Where other studies have addressed "digital" technology through a focus on its immateriality or virtual qualities, Gabrys traces the material, spatial, cultural, and political infrastructures that enable the emergence and dissolution of these technologies. In the course of her book, she explores five interrelated "spaces" where electronics fall apart: from Silicon Valley to Nasdaq, from containers bound for China to museums and archives that preserve obsolete electronics as cultural artifacts, to the landfill as material repository. All together, these sites stack up into a sedimentary record that forms the "natural history" of this study.
Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics describes the materiality of electronics from a unique perspective, examining the multiple forms of waste that electronics create as evidence of the resources, labor, and imaginaries that are bundled into these machines. By drawing on the material analysis developed by Walter Benjamin, this natural history method allows for an inquiry into electronics that focuses neither on technological progression nor on great inventors but rather considers the ways in which electronic technologies fail and decay. Ranging across studies of media and technology, as well as environments, geography, and design, Jennifer Gabrys pulls together the far-reaching material and cultural processes that enable the making and breaking of these technologies.
0 有用 余颜 2023-08-08 07:59:30 北京
在序言里提了一个想象里很美的理论分析框架,正文除了复读该框架外推进不多。经验案例是拼盘式写作,主题从硅芯片、纳斯达克屏幕、垃圾运输、博物馆到垃圾再利用,写作上做出一些层次,但无法掩盖整套理论未能有效发展的事实,且援引过多二手材料,章节内部复读情况也比较严重。好在议题有趣、理路不偏,算是还过得去。
0 有用 karwaii 2023-08-08 18:34:27 广东
电子产品媒介考古
0 有用 karwaii 2023-08-08 18:34:27 广东
电子产品媒介考古
0 有用 余颜 2023-08-08 07:59:30 北京
在序言里提了一个想象里很美的理论分析框架,正文除了复读该框架外推进不多。经验案例是拼盘式写作,主题从硅芯片、纳斯达克屏幕、垃圾运输、博物馆到垃圾再利用,写作上做出一些层次,但无法掩盖整套理论未能有效发展的事实,且援引过多二手材料,章节内部复读情况也比较严重。好在议题有趣、理路不偏,算是还过得去。