By Binnie Kwon

Data waste is always there. It is immortal and immune to the passing of time while reproducing and cloning endlessly in the place of nowhere. However, the abandoned and obsolete data waste still exists, forming its own space and time. What if it starts to invade our reality? How does materialised data waste look like? As an attempt to bring awareness of their existence, Cracking Reality presents the imaginary coexistence between data waste and our physical reality. The cracks on the screen serve in a way as a passage connects two different spaces. Through the cracks, fragmentised data waste interacts with each other and starts to anchor within our physical space.

Using the archive of media data from Instagram, Binnie Kwon aims to bring awareness of data-waste while exploring spatiality of its non-linear time. The research explores the imaginary assumption that data waste forms its own space and time while floating around human surroundings and questions how one might stimulate awareness of the existence of data-waste. If data-waste is materialised, what might it look like? How can design bring data-waste into our physical reality?

[1] Steyerl H (2017) Digital Debris. Available from https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3501-digital-debris.

[2] Groot N (2020) Digital Detritus: The Physicality of Invisible Data. Available from https://www.kabk.nl/en/lectorates/design/digital-detritus-nicole-do-groot

[3] Parikka J (2020) The Materiality of Media and Waste. Available from https://www.kabk.nl/en/lectorates/design/the-materiality-of-media-and-waste

[4] Salgado N,Vega R (2017) On cracks as metaphors: Studies on Fissures. Available from

https://robertovega.blog/on-cracks-as-metaphors-studies-on-fissures/

[5] Volkart Y Aesthetic Strategies in the Wasteocene. Available from

https://resonances.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/aesthetic-strategies-wasteocene

Instagram media data including archive of stories, profile pictures, and Likes, comments, connections, and saved history were requested through the rights extended by the GDPR.

In order to visualise the data-waste leaking out from the cracks, she used the photograph of a broken mirror and collaged it with 3d elements with textures from the image of media data. The spatiality behind the screen is presented through the different depths inside the space of fragments.

The final outcome makes use of the 'Pepper's ghost' illusion – a technique incorporating reflection where a plate is placed next to a monitor in 45° angle, exposing the video work as a broken reflection.