The massive problem of e-waste

We've all got some old electronic equipment stashed in a drawer somewhere, a broken mobile that hasn't made it's way to the bin yet, but before you chuck any of that stuff out, spend a moment considering where all that obsolete and busted technology ends up.




as people who are exploring all this new technology, we're frequently upgrading and expanding our collection of electronic equiptment - if i count up all the gadgets i've bought since first getting into this 'digital life' 5 years or so ago, its quite some figure. Add to that all the ink cartridges for the printer, batteries for cameras and music players etc, film canisters, photo processing chemicals, cd's and dvd's in their big plastic stack boxes, and it starts to get quite alarming. Thats after 5 years. Imagine what it'll be after 20 years as a media professional. Jesus H Vishnu, thats a shed load of dodgy plastics, chemicals and assorted toxins i'll be getting through.



We've really gotta start being more aware what we're doing when we use stuff and throw it out. Living in the land of plenty, it easy to just go on consuming and chucking out the remains, but continuing with this way of behavior can't be sustained, the effects are now too severe; we've gotta get with the programme.






I hope people watch these and take note. I'll blog later about where we can recycle our old mobiles, printer cartridges(which are also highly toxic) etc. I'm sure we've all got a few we need shot of. Some places send out freepost bags to post them off old stuff to recycle-if anyones interested, let me know and ill get a pile of them sent for us all.

Final Project

For the self directed project, I'm going to do a poster campaign around the ideas of e-waste and energy consumption of todays technology. With a single computer chip doing more harm to the environment than the average car, and your Second Life avatar consumes as much electricity as a real life Brazilian, it's probably time we started to consider our energy consumption a whole lot more.
15 million mobile phones are discarded in 2004 (im looking for more recent figures) with only 4% begin recycled, and with a billion new handsets being sold in the last year, the global stats for discarded phones must be pretty staggering. Should be a concern when you consider mobiles contain the 10 most dangerous substances known to man. Much of our electronic waste ends up in developing countries, and the resulting environmental impact in some places has been catastrophic.

will also look at viable energy alternatives, with the population growth out of control, the demand on already overburdened energy supplies continues to grow. The cost of oil is climbing fast, with analysts predicting that we reached Peak oil , reserves are running dry. makes no sense at all that we are at war over the scraps that remain.
Biofuel has come under fire recently after reports of it being inefficient, I'm interested to learn more about solar energy -it's the biggest source of energy out there,and must surely be a strong contender for a future energy source for mankind.

dissertating

My dissertation was entitled :
The Reality of Digital Photography.
Authenticity and the Pervasive Image in
Contemporary Culture.

I discussed the idea of the photographic image , and how digital technology has supposedly given rise to the 'loss of real', - digital images are inherently mutable, and can now be created from completely artificial content and this, some argue, has destroyed our faith in the authenticity of the photograph. I argued against this theory, stating that photography has never been able to show an objective view of reality, as a photograph comes into being as the result of a series of subjective decisions by the photographer- choice of lens, film speed, lighting, camera position, etc etc are all used to effect the way the image comes out. Photo editing software may now make it simple to manipulate images, but these developments are far from revolutionary, photography exists because of manipulation. whether a scene is arranged prior to image capture, or affected in post production traditionally in the darkroom, or digitally on a computer, they all ways to manipulate the final image, and present only the view of the author. Therefore the idea of a photographic 'truth' or authenticity becomes problematic.
I discussed the idea that digital technology has given back an element of control for the author, where previously roll film production, developing and printing were handled my large companies, now the photographer has more control over the whole process.
I suggested that more radical a change to photography with the development of digital technology was how it has changed the way we consume images, with cameras finding their way into ever more portable electronic devices, and personal computing allowing a greater flow of images through the home. The internet provides the means for self publishing and distribution, with staggering number of images uploaded each day. People are presenting themselves online in social network sites with snapshot photography. Images are flooding through our daily lives in larger tides.


What did i learn, other than i should probably leave dissertating to those that are good at it? Well i was stunned at the amount of images being uploaded to various sites. Its impossible to get decent statistics as there are so many places to upload images to, but hundreds of millions each week, increasing at a phenomenal rate. With more and more devices to capture, store and distribute images, the flood tide is sure to swell.


I found it very painful to write this essay, It's not something I'm naturally good at. I find it difficult to get down what I'm thinking about, without sounding like it's written by baboon. I also seem to use commas like vinegar on a bag of chips, sprinkling liberally all over the place until everything is soggy.
Glad it's handed in now though, quite a relief.