I recently saw this documentary, "
Manufactured Landscapes," about a photographer named
Edward Burtynsky, who takes photos of nature transformed through industry, such as oil fields and mines. The documentary highlights the paradox between developing new technologies and producing hazardous electronic waste (e-waste), but mainly focuses on the images of emerging industrial landscapes around the world and lets the viewer decide what it all means. While the new technologies seem to benefit Western nations, all of the waste of old technologies end up in countries such as China, where most of the devices were actually originally manufactured. There was a section of the documentary about e-waste, which we talked about a bit last class when discussing the new TVs coming out in 2009. Here are two of Burtynsky's photos of E-Waste in China:
Check out his
website for more of his photographs. I feel like a lot of focus these days goes to developing more advanced technologies without thought of what happens to the old. I think in the near future, e-waste will become a pressing environmental and social issue for activists and the world.
-Brittany
2 comments:
This really resonates with me personally, since the whole idea of forcing digital TV down the American public's throat still sickens me. All those tv's, all that material that won't break down, all those new chemicals and plastics and glass that will just sit there like in the pics you put up.
It did seem an interesting medium through which the idea of conservation and reduction of waste could be championed - using the corrupted land itself as a visual representation of all the negligence.
~Ben D
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