Gallery of DISUSED Things

The social printers were research products used to create a physical social network for political discourse in the 2016 EU Referendum. They don't currently work but might be restored and reused.

The battery of this much loved iPod has expanded within the device breaking the internal circuitry, however it is still kept by its owner.

These devices no longer function due to physical issues like damaged ports and lost adaptors, and/or digital problems including corrupted or obsolete software. Even though it is very unlikely that the data that they store is recoverable, the idea of throwing away the objects would also signify the 'loss' of personal memories for the owner.

While it might initially be considered an environmentally friendly product, the solar panel in this batteryless watch has become damaged. A relatively cheap and ubiquitous item, the watch's design does not allow the panel to be replaced. It is kept for its novelty factor.

The camera does not record video, however until our old tapes were digitised last year, it was the only way to view what is on them. We are planning on attempting to fix it and use it for video projects with an old tape recording feel.

Those items technically work, but the tamagotchi's awkward battery type and the gameboy's lack of a screen backlight mean they have been left in a drawer. However they still retain a sentimental value.

My late father’s Morse code automatic sending machine. It still “works” but lacks the equipment totality to make it functional. I had it mounted, first as a gift for him, now as a memorial. (Submission by Sally Cloke)

Got these headphones for my birthday, and they still work perfectly! I 3D printed replacement hinges as they broke. However, I got noise-cancelling headphones from work, so these haven't been used in a while now. (Submission by David Verweij)

A basket full of hardware 'that might come in handy!'. It includes unfinished upcycle projects from old laptops, which have been collecting dust for a while. I just have to find the time..... (Submission by David Verweij)

A laptop from my university time. Even though its operating system (Windows XP) is no longer supported, the specs are not bad compared to cheap laptops for sale now. (Submission by David Verweij)

A Huawei Watch 2 from a past research project - still quite new and powerful for today's standards. I stopped tracking sports activity and find watches a little bit uncomfortable in everyday life - so this is currently stored away as a reminder for me to start doing more sports. (Submission by David Verweij)

A phone I got when migrating abroad - before I got my current dual-sim phone. Kept this as I thought it is useful when going abroad or to the beach, though have never used it as such. (Submission by David Verweij)

A post-1975 Western Electric rotary telephone (Model 500), alongside an early 80’s Panasonic answering machine (Model KX-T1421). I originally used this phone for my landline, now it's sitting in my house alongside this answering machine as potential projects. (Submission by Erik Contreras)

A broken Sony MiniDisc Player (Model MZ-N505) alongside my entire MiniDisc collection. While this is currently a static addition to my collection of old audio formats, I would like to fix this unit and find the software that would allow me to make my own MiniDisc mixtapes. (Submission by Erik Contreras)

I purchased two of these sets for $8 (6.36 £) at a local thrift store. While neither of them worked at the time, I am in the process of combining the working parts to create a single working television. I plan to convert the working television into an oscilloscope for audio visualization. (Submission by Erik Contreras)

My computer died on me 4 years after I bought it. I was updating the OS and the screen just went black. I did not bothered on fixing it since I wanted to get a new one. A few months ago, I decided to open the back door and I discovered access to the hard drive. I carefully remove it, bought a cable on amazon and connect it to my new laptop - to my surprise I was able to access my old files! (Submission by Gustavo Fricke)

I used this CueCat in the mid 2000’s to connect all my books to the internet via GoodReads. The CueCat barcode scanner had been hacked to look up the ISBN of the book and then add those details to the GoodRead site. After the initial addition of a few hundred books over time the scripts used to keep the CueCat fell out of date with newer operating systems and eventually stopped working. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat (submission by Duncan Wilson)

From 2011, this activity tracker was a first foray into wearables. Whilst it was used for a couple of years as a quantified self device it soon became obsolete as changes of home computers meant the software to support it didn’t get connected and eventually became discontinued. It now sits in a draw alongside some other devices that I pretend I will bring back to life someday. (Submission by Duncan Wilson)

This is a good idea for a product—a kind of modern Polaroid using no ink but special thermal paper. But in an attempt to make the camera simple and cheap (the real profit comes on the replacement paper), it has basically no interface other than a beep and two LEDs that mean multiple things, and everything has to be done through a phone app, via Bluetooth. The Bluetooth on the camera seems to have stopped working, so there's no way to control it or work out why it doesn't work. I loved the idea of the product and could see so many uses for it in research projects, but whenever students have borrowed, it no-one has managed to get it to work. (Submission by Dan Lockton)