The only rule is black and white sketches only – not in an attempt to tie people down to a medium, but to give anyone the feeling they can submit something, even if they can only draw stick figures. “101 things to do with ‘old’ technology” is not about people’s drawing abilities or artistry, but their ideas and personality towards the recycling and reuse of technology.

We did a trial run in the semester at Swinburne, with posters advertising the competition up for 3 weeks, calling for entries. We had successful participation results, as well as positive feedback from many people, which has shown us that the project has a lot of potential to be run as a full-scale campaign.

Here are some of the entries we received:

Azhari Hashim

Brigid Green

Kai Hoffmann

2. You have never sat through an entire movie without having at least one device on your body beep or buzz.

3. You need to fill out a form that must be typewritten, but you can’t because there isn’t one typewriter in your house — only computers with laser printers.

4. You think of the gadgets in your office as “friends,” but you forget to send your father a birthday card.

5. You disdain people who use low baud rates.

6. When you go into a computer store, you eavesdrop on a salesperson talking with customers — and you butt in to correct him and spend the next twenty minutes answering the customers’ questions, while the salesperson stands by silently, nodding his head.

7. You use the phrase “digital compression” in a conversation without thinking how strange your mouth feels when you say it.

8. You constantly find yourself in groups of people to whom you say the phrase “digital compression.” Everyone understands what you mean, and you are not surprised or disappointed that you don’t have to explain it.

9. You know Bill Gates’ e-mail address, but you have to look up your own social security number.

10. You stop saying “phone number” and replace it with “voice number,” since we all know the majority of phone lines in any house are plugged into contraptions that talk to other contraptions.

11. You sign Christmas cards by putting next to your signature.

12. Off the top of your head, you can think of nineteen keystroke symbols that are far more clever than .

13. You back up your data every day.

14. Your wife asks you to pick up some minipads for her at the store and you return with a rest for your mouse.

15. You think jokes about being unable to program a VCR are stupid.

16. On vacation, you are reading a computer manual and turning the pages faster than everyone else who is reading John Grisham novels.

17. The thought that a CD could refer to finance or music rarely enters your mind.

18. You are able to argue persuasively the Ross Perot’s phrase “electronic town hall” makes more sense than the term “information superhighway,” but you don’t because, after all, the man still uses hand-drawn pie charts.

19. You go to computer trade shows and map out your path of the exhibit hall in advance. But you cannot give someone directions to your house without looking up the street names.

20. You would rather get more dots per inch than miles per gallon.

21. You become upset when a person calls you on the phone to sell you something, but you think it’s okay for a computer to call and demand that you start pushing buttons on your telephone to receive more information about the product it is selling.

22. You know without a doubt that disks come in five-and-a- quarter-and three-and-a-half-inch sizes.

23. Al Gore strikes you as an “intriguing” fellow.

24. You own a set of itty-bitty screw-drivers and you actually know where they are.

25. While contemporaries swap stories about their recent hernia surgeries, you compare mouse-induced index-finger strain with a nine-year-old.

26. You are so knowledgeable about technology that you feel secure enough to say “I don’t know” when someone asks you a technology question instead of feeling compelled to make something up.

27. You rotate your screen savers more frequently than your automobile tires.

28. You have a functioning home copier machine, but every toaster you own turns bread into charcoal.

29. You have ended friendships because of irreconcilably different opinions about which is better — the track ball or the track *pad*.

30. You understand all the jokes in this message. If so, my friend, technology has taken over your life. We suggest, for your own good, that you go lie under a tree and write a haiku. And don’t use a laptop.

Source: http://www.thatwasfunny.com/30-signs-that-technology-has-taken-over-your-life/1438

We originally asked students from VCA Art and VCA Production if they would like to participate in creating something for the project, but as it was already late in the semester, they’re all a bit too busy.

Instead, we are creating a proposal document and information pack for Eight Artists & Eight Computers, where it can be taken up at a later time. But to get the ball rolling, I got my brother to demonstrate how the project would work by creating something from one of the old monitors I collected at hard rubbish.

Here is the process and finished result.

Download our project timeline here: gannt-chart.pdf

You can download the styleguide here: iconsume_style_guide.pdf

design_proposal

For our final outcome, we first begun with the idea of doing a case of A5 hardcover books, broken down into: proposal, research, producer/consumer alliance, 101 things to do with old technology, and the CD for all of our digital files. But once we crunched some numbers, we realised it was going to be too expensive ($70 per book, three sets of 5 books…you do the math, it isn’t pretty). We also had the possible issue of some books having unbalanced page amounts, depending on the content.

Instead, we will be creating one large book (possibly oversize A4) with different sections. The ways in which the sections will be broken up include the use of different typefaces, different paper stocks, and a variety of page sizes.

They currently own 1 television, 1 stereo, 1 pay-TV box, 1 DVD player, 1 VCR, 1 computer, 1 scanner, 1 printer, 1 wireless modem, 1 mobile phone, 1 PDA, 1 game console and other computer game equipment.

They have a love-hate relationship with technology. Technology means their work is with them 24 hours a day on their PDA, but it also brings entertainment through TV, the internet, and video games. They tend to rely on technology to get them through the day – not necessarily because they want to, but because their work revolves around it.

As they live a very busy lifestyle, recycling technology is not a priority. They live in a small unit that doesn’t have much storage space, so if an item isn’t being used, it is either passed onto someone else who can continue to use it, sold on eBay, or thrown in the bin. With their working life, they feel they do not have the time to fix an item if it is broken, and have realised it is often cheaper to just buy a new – and updated – piece of technology, rather than paying the large bill to fix something that will be obsolete so soon anyway.