disposable culture/disposable people

Disposable Culture

The initial concept for this project was based on a urban distinguished attitude or notion of common disposability*. I was  interested in exploring the translation of wastefulness/ disposability of objects, to biopolitical implications of perceptions of human disposability. e.g.  cheap laborers, in the armed forces, human trafficking (global scale), placement of the elderly in nursing homes, online dating, incarceration.

 I  began  to see the street dumpster as a very important cultural symbol of the perpetual changing city. renovation, foreclosure, exploitation of space, hidden guts of a building, the loud bangs we encounter as they are being loaded with rubble, gentrification (or ameloiration) , etc. How might we make a broader connection to  the translation of wastefulness/ disposability of objects, to perceptions of human disposability. 

  A site -specific public art piece. 

The idea was to outfit a small (10 yard) dumpster with 3-4 television monitors. Hidden beneath garbage and other building materials sill be  short video tracks that have 4-5 minute short narratives of various “disposable” people’s lives. The featured people illegal laborers, member of armed forces and elderly people confined to nursing homes . They will discuss their life and background in these alternating monitors. The monitors will be wired  (hidden) into 4 infrared sensors, aimed at the street/ sidewalk, so that as a person passes by, the monitors will activate.      The viewer will then become surprised to see and hear the experience of the disposable person.  The short documentaries’ audio will be set to only what the television monitors’ speakers can provide, so as to draw the viewer in closer.

*Everyday objects can easily be replaced, and there is a false assurance of endless supply.  Planned Obsolescence is a decision made on part of the manufacturer to produce a product that will become obsolete and/or nonfunctional with in a timeframe (i.e. Microsoft no longer gives support for windows 95). Possessions/ objects become devalued and mass consumerism proliferates.