From the Cloud to the Landfill: The Case of the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform and Akwasi Bediako Afrane’s TRONS

Main Article Content

Cyrus Khalatbari

Abstract

This contribution sheds light on discarded electronics repair in Accra, Ghana. After placing these practices in dialogue with the Western and Eurocentric narratives around the materiality of digital interactions and infrastructure, it delves into two arts and design contexts that gravitate around the electronic waste landfill and processing site of Agbogbloshie (Ghana). The first case study is the Agbogbloshie Makerspace (AMP), a critical making (and unmaking) platform empowering local repairers and dismantlers through open-source collaborative design methods. The contribution then focuses on the work of Akwasi Bediako Afrane, a Ghanaian media artist who re-appropriates discarded computers to critique and speculate on our sociotechnical condition. Situating these initiatives in the light of our broader dominant internet and computing narratives, the article situates the importance of these practices in order to tackle and raise awareness about the planetary electronic waste condition we live in.

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How to Cite
Khalatbari, C. (2023). From the Cloud to the Landfill: The Case of the Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform and Akwasi Bediako Afrane’s TRONS. Diseña, (23), Article.5. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.23.Article.5
Section
Original Articles (part 1)
Author Biography

Cyrus Khalatbari, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne; HEAD – Genève

Ph.D. candidate of the joint program between the Geneva Arts and Design University (HEAD – Genève, HES-SO) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Techno­logy (EPFL). After pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from the Université du Québec à Montréal, he obtained an M.Des. degree from Concordia University. He is an artist, designer, and researcher. Through his Ph.D. research, he bridges ethnographic fieldwork and Science and Technology Studies (STS) with arts and design methodologies in order to address, at the level of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), the ecological implications of computing power and the digital.

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