Medianatures

MedianaturesCover1.jpg

The Materiality of Information Technology and Electronic Waste

edited by Jussi Parikka

Introduction: The Materiality of Media and Waste

Medianatures picks up from Donna Haraway’s idea of naturecultures – the topological continuum between nature and culture, the material entwining and enfolding of various agencies, meanings and interactions. Medianatures gives the concept of naturecultures a specific emphasis, and that emphasis is at the core of this living book. It is a useful concept and framework for investigating some of the ways in which our electronic and high-tech media culture is entwined with a variety of material agencies. The notion of ‘materiality’ is taken here in a literal sense to refer, for instance, to ‘plasma reactions and ion implantation’ (Yoshida, 1994: 105) – as in processes of semiconductor fabrication, or to an alternative list of media studies objects and components which are studied from an e-waste management perspective: ‘metal, motor/compressor, cooling, plastic, insulation, glass, LCD, rubber, wiring/electrical, concrete, transformer, magnetron, textile, circuit board, fluorescent lamp, incandescent lamp, heating element, thermostat, brominated flamed retardant (BFR)-containing plastic, batteries, CFC/HCFC/HFC/HC, external electric cables, refractory ceramic fibers, radioactive substances and electrolyte capacitors (over L/D 25 mm)’, and which themselves are constituted from a range of materials – plastics, wood, plywood, copper, aluminum, silver, gold, palladium, lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, hexavalent chromium and flame retardants (Pinto, 2008). (more)

Materials

Kevin Brigden and David Santillo

Toxic Chemicals in Computers Exposed: Determining the Presence of Hazardous Substances in Five Laptop Computers

Jason Holden and Christopher Kelty

The Environmental Impact of the Manufacturing of Semiconductors

Fumikazu Yoshida

High-Tech Pollution

Bernd Kopacek

ReLCD: Recycling and ReUse of LCD Panels

Richard W. Clapp

Mortality Among US Employees of a Large Computer Manufacturing Company: 1969-2001

Energetics

UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

ICT and CO2 Emissions

Olli Silven and Kari Jyrkkä

Observations on Power-Efficiency Trends in Mobile Communication Devices

Partha Pratim Ray

The Green Grid Saga -- A Green Initiative to Data Centers: A Review

Jonathan G. Koomey

Growth in Data Center Electricity Use 2005 to 2010

Willis Lang and Jignesh M. Patel

Towards Eco-friendly Database Management Systems

Matteo Pasquinelli

Four Regimes of Entropy. For an Ecology of Genetics and Biomorphic Media Theory

Waste

Jim Puckett and Ted Smith (eds)

Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia

Jonathan Linton, Julian Scott Yeomans, and Reena Yoogalingam

The Facilitation of Industrial Ecology, Product Take-Back, and Sustainability through the Forecasting of Television Waste Flows

Julian Scott Yeomans and Yavuz Günalay

Unsustainable Paradoxes Inherent in the International Legislation of Electronic Waste Disposal

Violet N. Pinto

E-waste Hazard: The Impending Challenge

S. Priyadharshini et al.

A Survey on Electronic Waste Management in Coimbatore

Ecosophy

Matthias Feilhauer and Soenke Zehle (eds)

Ethics of Waste in the Information Society - Special issue of International Review of Information Ethics

Jussi Parikka

Media Ecologies and Imaginary Media: Expansions, Contractions and Foldings

Garnet Hertz

Dead Media Research Lab

Redundant Technology Initiative

Appendix 1

Jennifer Gabrys

Digital Rubbish: A Natural History of Electronics

Phone Story: an educational game about the dark side of your favorite smart phone