Thompson, Philip; (2021) Imagining Agbogbloshie: Issues of Electronic Waste and Representation. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This report will focus on how artists, particularly new media artists, have represented the issues of electronic waste and recycling through their works and the implications of their output and processes. The research will specifically analyse electronic waste and its status as an object, its movement around the world, and will focus in on the specific electronic waste dump of Agbogbloshie, in Accra Ghana, as an important site for formulating ethical and environmental questions about how we represent global environmental issues through a local lens. In particular the research will investigate how the art world and electronic waste are intertwined, analysing the image economy that exploits the global south, and ask how art works can help to bring about actual and realistic change. It will also look at how new media art work can use its format to self reflexively document and enact issues of digital materiality. This takes the form of artworks produced in collaboration with people directly affected by electronic waste, as well as with activists who are working to improve the situation. Ultimately the research analyses the role of the electronic waste dump on a global and local scale. Investigating the role that the art world already plays in these areas and how it can take a better, more involved approach - both through working with activist groups, charities, and the people affected, but also through the use of new media and technology itself.

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