The Backtalk project provides a technically advanced sensor network and interface to track electronic devices from use to disposal, including location data, photos of users, and travel information. It aims to raise awareness of e-waste issues through a visually engaging narrative to be presented at MOMA. While it effectively tells an important story about global e-waste transport, questions remain around public access and political control over the complete data set and information filtering.
The Backtalk project provides a technically advanced sensor network and interface to track electronic devices from use to disposal, including location data, photos of users, and travel information. It aims to raise awareness of e-waste issues through a visually engaging narrative to be presented at MOMA. While it effectively tells an important story about global e-waste transport, questions remain around public access and political control over the complete data set and information filtering.
The Backtalk project provides a technically advanced sensor network and interface to track electronic devices from use to disposal, including location data, photos of users, and travel information. It aims to raise awareness of e-waste issues through a visually engaging narrative to be presented at MOMA. While it effectively tells an important story about global e-waste transport, questions remain around public access and political control over the complete data set and information filtering.
The Backtalk project provides a technically advanced sensor network and interface to track electronic devices from use to disposal, including location data, photos of users, and travel information. It aims to raise awareness of e-waste issues through a visually engaging narrative to be presented at MOMA. While it effectively tells an important story about global e-waste transport, questions remain around public access and political control over the complete data set and information filtering.
Project is basically continuation of Sensible City LABs Trash I Track project (2009), and their interest in garbage tracking and disposal. Backtalk project is technically more advanced in way that sensor installed in particular device (like laptops) can provide site specific photo of person who use the device and the spatial context where device is used all integrated in the interface which provides information about device (code), distance (km) and duration of traveling (days), place where is disposed (city, state) and geo-location of the device (coordinates, map). Emotionally charged visual production at least partly owes to the fact that project is planned to be publicly presented in MOMA, within exhibition Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects, 2011. In that sense project unquestionably fulfills its primarily role of delivering strong and concise narrative about contemporary problem of e-garbage transport and disposal (recycle) as well as the adequate electronically equipment management on global scale (reuse). However, questions about complete and publically accessible data overview, technically grounded in data filtering and data mining, stays within field of political control over information, and therefore open to further discussion.