Rocks in Vogue : on material flows within electronic devices

Abstract: Landscapes have been exploited and polluted by humans in order to obtain metals. Materials are treated as commodities: extracted, used inside our devices and appliances, then discarded as useless matter. The timespan of efficiency is shortened more and more due to obsolescence, material desire and constant innovation. That’s a paradoxical perspective compared to the deep time those metals embody, born in the outer space from star collision and arriving to Earth as meteors, 4 billion years ago. Rocks in vogue is an exploration on the material flows within the electronic devices production and their disposal. Very often the connection between consumers and source is invisible and well-masked behind the slick surfaces of our laptops and smartphones. Through the disassembling of old broken devices, the metals found inside represent values, stories and resistance. The material’s agency is expressed through low-power ceramic batteries; the elementary reaction moving from copper to iron represents a narrative of slow processes, material exhaustion and care. The batteries move from being something that supports our technological desires to statement objects that make things speak.