TIMELINE: 2023.5 ~ 2023.6
CONTEXT: Team Product | Circular Products: Experience | Sophomore Design
TEAMMATE: Guo Hui | Emily | JoJo
ROLE: Background Research | Video Making
TIMELINE: 2023.5 ~ 2023.6
CONTEXT: Team Product | Circular Products: Experience | Sophomore Design
TEAMMATE: Guo Hui | Emily | JoJo
ROLE: Background Research | Video Making
With the rapid expansion of technology and consumption of digital devices, electronic waste has become a large issue. The aim of our project is to present personal electronic devices in their life cycle from new to broken, including the representation of air pollution caused by electronic waste. Our work uses simple geometry to symbolize these steps in the lifecycle. The transition between concrete and abstract ways of representations offers not only accessible information for a general public, but also inspires audience to think about their own contribution to a more sustainable future.
This work is made site-specifically for a large cylindrical LED-panel column in the C Future City Shopping Mall in Shenzhen.
Description
What is e-waste?
We are now surrounded by electronic products, and everything we are using will become electronic waste eventually. We can see from the chart on the right that the output of e-waste is increasing year by year. Last year, China's e-waste output reached a staggering 21.93 million tons.
At the beginning of the video, the process of starting from 0 to 1 to countless numbers through electronic products represents that these products expand rapidlly and have filled our lives. Consuming electronic products is common, but people rarely care about where they will be piled up in an unseen corner as e-waste.
What could e-waste generate?
Electronic products produce a variety of toxic chemicals during processing, and direct contact with these substances can cause health risks. Today, a large part of e-waste is sent to third world countries for disposal, and their most common disposal method is burning, which will aggravate the production of toxic substances and bring greater safety and health risks.
In the video, we replace the use of electronics with rotation, and as the devices wear out, they become pixelated and eventually shattered to represent the result of their e-waste. The reason we choose to transform concrete electronic products into abstract pixel fragments is because of the fact that cylindrical screens are not easy to read information, so we use the simplest shapes to display electronic waste. As they fell into pieces, the background sound changed to burning, indicating that the pieces had been mishandled and turned into smaller "electronic haze.
How would e-waste harm us?
E-waste will be processed into such fine debris that it is easier for these debris to accumulate in the soil, air, and even domestic animals. Even the most commonly used recycling methods will inevitably cause environmental and air hazards. Once these toxic substances enter our body through various channels, they will cause serious harm to our health.
In the final stage of the video, the background gradually turns black, representing the environmental pollution caused by electronic haze. Although the tiny pieces floating around are colorful, they are extremely toxic. The electronic haze produced by electronic waste is not only related to the environment, It is closely related to each of us as well.
Video
Original Screen
Cylinder Screen (2 loops)
HIGHLIGHT: We want to use "Electronic Haze" to awaken people's awareness of the dangers of electronic waste by the most understandable way, so that people can reduce the production of electronic waste on the individual level as much as possible, for the environment and also for ourselves.