No Tech Reader #48: Digital Technology
- If you can read this, you are not a machine. [Gittit Szwarc]
- Clay PCB. [Patrícia J. Reis] “Our Clay PCB is not made of plastic but instead clay collected from the forest in Austria that was carefully prepared and modeled in a shape of a tile with an imprinted circuit, and later fired with wood in the nature. Our conductive tracks use urban-mined silver and all components are re-used from old electronic devices.” Via Roel Roscam Abbing.
- The revenge of the home page. [New Yorker] “As social networks become less reliable distributors of the news, consumers of digital journalism are seeking out an older form of online real estate.” Via Roel Roscam Abbing.
- The ‘boring phone’: stressed-out gen Z ditch smartphones for dumbphones. [The Guardian] “The problem with offlining is that the world is increasingly difficult for people without a smartphone.”
- This Irresistible Revolution. [The Point Magazine] “One of the ways that I “get offline” in the morning is by running—after which I upload my run to Strava.” Via Arts&Letters Daily.
- Ben Grosser, artist and creator of Minus, the opposite of Facebook. [Techtonic podcast]
- 2024 Small File Media Festival: Call for Work. Deadline: 15 June.
Ironwood Bicycles
The Ironwood bicycle is a wooden framed bike that people could make themselves with commonly available materials. It has a laminated wooden frame and fork to which standard bicycle components are bolted. The frame can be made with basic carpentry and metalwork skills, without the need for welding or soldering. The design is intended for small scale bicycle production that would support local employment as an alternative to importing bicycles from around the world. More: http://www.ironwoodbicycle.com.
Talk in Brussels 21 May
Next week 21 May LTM does a talk in Brussels, reflecting on the work of architect Louise Morin in gallery “et al.” It is the last day you can see her exhibition.
Wind Energy Development as a Capitalist Trojan Horse
“Wind energy development in Crete and Oaxaca is continuing the existing trajectory of energy extraction companies, resulting in an intensification of existing income-inequality, ecological degradation and social conflict, whilst spreading coercive cultural change. Based on these cases and critical (wind park) literature, we argue, that in actuality wind energy development represents a ‘Trojan horse’ for capitalism’s ongoing growth intensifying socio-ecological crisis through ‘accumulation by wind energy’. Wind parks serve as ‘Trojan horses’ for, amongst others, corporate land grabbing and temporarily mediating capitalism’s key contradictions.”
Quoted from: Siamanta, Z. C., & Dunlap, A. (2019). ‘Accumulation by Wind Energy’: Wind Energy Development as a Capitalist Trojan Horse in Crete, Greece and Oaxaca, Mexico. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(4), 925–955. Retrieved from https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1718
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