Overview

How can we imagine a technologized life that deviates from globalized norms and standardization and from our collective obsession with endless growth? ​In 'Deserted Devices and Wasted Fences', artist and cultural critic Dani Ploeger examines everyday technologies found in places and circumstances that are usually unforeseen by their designers, manufacturers and marketers. He travels through second-hand markets in sub-Saharan Africa, the frontline in the Russo-Ukrainian War, desert landscapes in the Middle East, anti-immigration fences on the EU border and many other sites of turmoil, disruption and surprising convergences. Examining the ways in which technologies that were intended for use in everyday consumer culture start to (mal)function, gain new meanings and are appropriated in these liminal spaces can give us hints at what alternative techno-cultures could look like. This collection of essays provokes unusual perspectives on how technologies might be developed, used and reappropriated in support of people’s personal, local and regional lifeworlds and lifestyles.

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9781913743437

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Reviews

“Highly recommended for all scholars, thinkers, artists… well for anyone with an interest in stuff, things, technology, waste, bodies, consumerism, and so much else that’s going in our crazy, divided and imperilled world. Delivered in wonderfully erudite and insightful, not to mention often plainly hilarious, bite-sized chunks of smart observation and edgy practice across a myriad quotidian but often less visible lives and situations - and all entangled with enough theoretical sophistication to inspire critical reflection in any reader, without drowning them. In this book Ploeger and his diverse collaborators offer an exciting, and sometimes disturbing reflection upon some of the key issues of our time. Not to be missed.”; Joost Fontein, Professor of Anthropology, University of Johannesburg; ""I very much recommend this very captivating read of Ploeger’s endeavour to highlight not only the wastages of our ‘throwaway’ society, but also globally explore and posit innovative ways that already exist or could exist to rethink and reappropriate technology, at the same time producing new significatory ways of technological being.""; Susan Broadhurst, Professor Emerita of Performance and Technology, Brunel University London / Chair, Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA); “This book is gritty and provocative, asking us to review technologies through a radical vision. The festival, the event and the everyday come together in an enticing assemblage. Exceptional in terms of intellectual contributions and vantage point.”; Yasmin Ibrahim, Professor of Digital Economy and Culture, Queen Mary, University of London

Highly recommended for all scholars, thinkers, artists... well for anyone with an interest in stuff, things, technology, waste, bodies, consumerism, and so much else that's going in our crazy, divided and imperilled world. Delivered in wonderfully erudite and insightful, not to mention often plainly hilarious, bite-sized chunks of smart observation and edgy practice across a myriad quotidian but often less visible lives and situations - and all entangled with enough theoretical sophistication to inspire critical reflection in any reader, without drowning them. In this book Ploeger and his diverse collaborators offer an exciting, and sometimes disturbing reflection upon some of the key issues of our time. Not to be missed. ; Joost Fontein, Professor of Anthropology, University of Johannesburg; I very much recommend this very captivating read of Ploeger's endeavour to highlight not only the wastages of our 'throwaway' society, but also globally explore and posit innovative ways that already exist or could exist to rethink and reappropriate technology, at the same time producing new significatory ways of technological being. ; Susan Broadhurst, Professor Emerita of Performance and Technology, Brunel University London / Chair, Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts (DRHA); This book is gritty and provocative, asking us to review technologies through a radical vision. The festival, the event and the everyday come together in an enticing assemblage. Exceptional in terms of intellectual contributions and vantage point. ; Yasmin Ibrahim, Professor of Digital Economy and Culture, Queen Mary, University of London

Author Information

Dani Ploeger is an artist and cultural theorist who explores situations of conflict and crisis on the fringes of the world of high-tech consumerism. His artwork has been exhibited in museums, galleries and festivals worldwide, including ZKM Karlsruhe, Venice Architecture Biennale, transmediale, Nairobi National Museum and The New Institute in Rotterdam. ​ He holds a PhD from the University of Sussex, UK, and is currently a Research Fellow at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London and a Fellow at V2_Lab for the unstable media in Rotterdam. His artwork is represented by Art Claims Impulse in Berlin.

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