Medianatures

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The Materiality of Information Technology and Electronic Waste

ISBN: 978-1-60785-261-2

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

Attributions

A 'Frozen' PDF Version of this Living Book

Download a 'frozen' PDF version of this book as it appeared on 7th October 2011