Re-writing the machinic anthropocene - Initial Research

'Re-writing the machinic anthropocene' investigates how speculative fictional methods in creative practice could be used to expose and rewrite the relations between digital technologies and the anthropocene, and also how these methods could bring into view nonhuman voices and perspectives. This item contains initial research explorations for the project. The fictional approach was made operational via the construction of a fictive research space and set of research personas, positioned below an e-waste site. From here a mapping process traced the technical hyperobject of a smartphone, including the sourcing of raw materials, the production of new forms of waste and the impacts on human and nonhuman. This map was developed into The Signal and the Rock: Proposal for a film (2014-18), an iterative multimedia lecture that exposes and rewrites the technical hyperobject of a smartphone.