Found Technology

For my final part of my triptych, I decided to do a found object. For this I knew I wanted to represent more modern day technology, and this era. So for my sketches I played around with getting a monitor, tv, or speakers. Having broken or damaged wires, or getting obsolete technology.

I had orginally planned to use a smaller moniter that I picked up at ladders (a local second hand store.) But then a friend of mine sent me a picture of a tv that was thrown away in one of the school dumpsters.

I grabbed the Tv and brought it down to my studio, and then let my classmate bri damage the front of it a little bit. In the initial design I planned to make it seem damaged from sitting for a long time. Just cracking the screen a little and having it covered with dust and dirt. But since I still wanted a clear divide between how long these things had been sitting, I ended up moving away from an aged look.

Instead I let my other friend Alyssa go at it with a hammer, damaging the screen in a much more violent way. This wasn’t necessarily done to coney violence, but the hope was that seeing how damaged it was would be more upsetting for the viewer, even on a subconscious level. It was also to make it clear that objects were no longer useable. That everything else in the room is obsolete, and the one thing that maybe could have been saved or considered worth anything is damaged beyond repair.

Along with the Tv screen I also placed some damaged VHS tapes. This was to further push that feeling of how quickly things have become obsolete. Here were two things that should work together. A screen to watch on, and things to watch. But they don’t work together, rendering them useless.

I also added two cardboard boxes marked donation to help strengthen the feeling that this was a bedroom, as well to make clear that these things had been abandoned. Set aside to give away because they are no longer useful to us, and then forgotten about. Then maybe someone else had come in to loot the place but found there was nothing worth taking, so they destroyed it further instead.