Techriolage

The concept of techriolage relates to the approach to reappropriate technical objects. It investigates the potential of integrating traditional crafts with electronic waste to engage communities in repair practices, and foster a more ecological and culturally sensitive design culture.

I want to delve into the philosophical implications of the relationship between technology and human existence, emphasising the importance of local knowledge and cultural diversity in addressing modern day problems of electronic waste. For example:

• What alternative methods and processes can we develop to address the multiple crises created by unchecked capitalism?
• What modes of resistance are possible across academic, cultural, governmental, business and activist institutions?
• Most importantly, how can we participate in reimagining ways of life with attention to design justice?

Under the umbrella of criticality, justice, power and futurism, pluriversal design seeks to create polyphonic speculations. It moves away from dominant Eurocentric, patriarchal and imperialist ideologies, toward postcolonial, radical, and marginalised futures.

Earth Overshoot Day

Massy Atlantis, a newly constructed, fantastical township located 20km south of Paris in the suburbs, evokes the fictional island from Plato’s Timaeus and Critias through its name. However, the weekly accumulation of trash reflects the consumption patterns of the township’s “designed human” inhabitants.

The term “designed human” is used here instead of “ideal human” or “normal human” to emphasise that our daily lives are constantly governed by external forces such as algorithms, data and systems. These systems are designed by people, for people, to serve common interests and generic efficacy devoid of ornaments. This concept is particularly relevant in Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic (WEIRD) societies, which represent 73% of participants in computer-human interaction (CHI) studies, despite constituting only 12% of the global population. The designed human reflects how modern architecture and technology shape human experiences, creating a quasi-human figure that is both a product and a participant in the designed environment.

Weekly waste serves as a clear indicator of the accumulation and consumption of globalised goods, highlighting the inequality of overproduction – particularly in the global majority – and the overconsumption of highly marketable products. Earth Overshoot Day, which measures per-capita consumption against global biocapacity, has shifted from 2 August 2023 to 25 July 2024. This day marks when humanity exhausts the Earth's yearly capacity to regenerate resources. The seven-day shift signifies an unsustainable rate of ecological depletion, surpassing the planet's annual replenishment capacity by 75%. From Earth Overshoot Day onward, humanity effectively relies on borrowed ecological capital.

Although some garbage is segregated for recycling, electronic waste stands out due to the complexity of electronic equipment and components, comprising numerous minerals and rare earth metals.

The Curious Case of Electronic Waste

The new Global E-waste Monitor 2024 by UNITAR draws attention to a steady rise in electronic waste outpacing documented e-waste recycling rates by five times, necessitating immediate action regarding consumption and disposal practices. In developing nations such as India, where e-waste recycling facilities are inadequate, approximately 95% of e-waste undergoes informal treatment and processing in urban slums by untrained workers lacking personal protective equipment, posing severe risks to human health and the environment.

Obsolescence is one key factor in electronic waste generation when our designed objects become outdated or out modelled and no longer used. Vance Packard was the first to coin the term “planned obsolescence” in his 1960's book, The Waste Makers, and pointed out there are mainly three different ways that products that surround us can become obsolete.

• Obsolescence of Function - In this situation, an existing product becomes outmoded when a product is introduced that performs the function better.
• Obsolescence of Quality - Here, when it is planned, a product breaks down or wears out at a given time, usually not too distant.
• Obsolescence of Desirability - In this situation, a product that is still sound in terms of quality or performance becomes “worn out” in our minds because a styling or other change makes it seem less desirable.

Standardisation

The notion of standardisation is an attempt to reduce and simplify the greatest number of human needs to the greatest degree of equality. It is up to us, as to whether standardisation opens more interesting realms of experience than it closes. Depending on the result, we could end up with a total degradation of human life or the possibility of perpetually discovering new desires. But these desires will not come about on their own, in the oppressive frame of our world. Communal action must be taken to detect, manifest and realise them.

Degrowth

Similar to Protein's Good Growth, the burgeoning movement of depaving concrete and asphalt across developed nations, undertaken to mitigate summer heat waves and flooding, exemplifies an ironic challenge to the prevailing narratives of development. It represents a pursuit of alternatives within material culture, embodying the process of degrowth. The increasing popularity of the prefixes “de” and “re” reflects a behavioural shift aimed at addressing the existential issue of climate change confronting us.

This appeal for “decentering” is already visible in the technosphere, where critics of GAFAM (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft) have departed from centralised web platforms, questioning and constructing thoughtful alternative technological behaviours, exemplified by initiatives like Mastodon, Bluesky, Framework and Fairphone to name a few.

The Electrocence

As we have delegated the simple repetitive mundane tasks to automatic operations in the age of the Electrocene, questions arise about the impact of electronic and computational activity on the planet and human society. The Electrocene emphasises the growing influence of digital technologies, artificial intelligence and automation on our environment, culture and biology. The Electrocene suggests that we’ve moved beyond just manipulating physical matter to shaping the very fabric of information and data, creating a new layer of complexity and interconnectedness in the world. This concept calls for a deeper understanding of its potential consequences for the future.

Permacomputing

Permacomputing, a fusion of permaculture and computing, represents a potential convergence of technology, cultural work, environmental research and activism. Introduced in 2020 by Ville-Matias Heikkilä, a software developer and computer artist, permacomputing envisions giving computers a meaningful and sustainable place within human civilisation, which itself must find a sustainable place within the planetary biosphere. 

The Jevons Paradox, named after the British economist William Stanley Jevons, posits that improvements in the efficiency of resource use can result in an overall increase in resource consumption, rather than a reduction. This counterintuitive outcome occurs because efficiency improvements often lower the cost of using a resource, which can increase its demand and overall consumption. In the context of sustainability, Jevons Paradox suggests that technological innovations alone may not solve environmental problems; instead, they must be accompanied by institutional and behavioural changes to achieve true sustainability.

Remaking The World With Leftovers

For me, tearing down gadgets and technical objects has fascinated me since childhood. It has also always been a meditative process. The sustainable unmaking in HCI is gaining traction, not only in discussions about the circular economy and green eco-design but also emphasising the intentional dismantling and deconstruction of products to recover valuable materials, in doing so minimising waste and reducing the demand for virgin resources.

What’s more, by designing products for disassembly and incorporating unmaking into waste management practices, we can foster better design practices. Unmaking leads to a new design strategy in various design roles across disciplines – the “design reductionist”. This role would focus on minimising material use and waste throughout a product’s lifecycle. The reductionist would also prioritise longevity over planned obsolescence, aiming to reduce the overall environmental impact of the product.

The Vitality of Craft

Craft serves as a crucial nexus for cultural sustainability, embodying both material culture and diverse practices spanning local production to global design industries. While recognised as a cultural and economic asset, craft development often falls under the purview of national and international agencies, potentially marginalising local participation. The importance of cultural sustainability becomes evident as development initiatives penetrate grassroots communities, affecting creativity, labour practices, and maker identities. Craft also emerges as a vital medium for cultural pluralism, acting as a locus for pluriversality by fostering diverse traditions across regions and communities. This aligns with Escobar’s concept of “autonomous design,” favouring collaborative and place-based approaches:

• Can traditional crafts and skills offer a path towards the pluriversal vision of degrowth and an alternative to the dominant capitalist modernity?
• How might craft-based tinkering and localised speculations help minimise electronic waste, challenging the obsolescence of desirability and function perpetuated by the current technological paradigm?

Cultural Sustainability

From cultural heritage to cultural and creative industries, culture is both an enabler and a driver of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Culture is defined as a set of beliefs, morals, methods, institutions and a collection of human knowledge that is dependent on the transmission of these characteristics to younger generations.

The concept of techriolage is proposed as a novel approach to repurposing and repairing electronic waste. This methodology aims to engage communities in repair practices through hyperlocal solutions, integrating traditional crafts with modern fabrication techniques.

The approach draws inspiration from the anthropological concept of bricolage, as popularised by Lévi-Strauss, which involves making do with available resources (jugaad, in an Indian context). Techriolage extends this idea to the realm of electronic waste, proposing a synergy between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary maker spaces.

By combining hyperlocal speculation with practical repair and remanufacturing techniques, techriolage aims to give new life to obsolete technological artefacts. This approach not only addresses the issue of electronic waste but also promotes a more diverse and culturally sensitive design practice.

With the largest diaspora in the world and numerous living languages spoken, India is renowned for its geographic and cultural diversity. What does technology hold for its people? Indofuturism can be conceptualised as a counter-narrative to digital colonisation, offering a framework for envisioning India’s technological future on its own terms. This perspective challenges the dominance of Western tech giants and their control over digital infrastructure, data and user experiences.

Indofuturism, by promoting indigenous technological development and data sovereignty, seeks to resist the economic, political and cultural ramifications of digital imperialism. It advocates for decentralised, culturally rooted technological ecosystems that prioritise local interests and values, countering the homogenising effects of global tech. This approach aims to redefine India's relationship with technology, emphasising autonomy, innovation and the preservation of cultural identity in the digital age.

This is an edited and condensed extract from Techriolage: Repairing the Aesthetics of Technical Objects, which Shikhar Bhardwaj initially posted in SEED CLUB.