CONVERSATION PIECE l STOCKHOLM
Excerpt from installation film Kino, 2014
Conversation Piece, a collaborative practice initiated in 2011 by Beatrice Brovia and Nicolas Cheng, can be intended as a hands-on study on interconnectedness and interdependency. An ongoing reflection on 'making-with' through conversation, misunderstanding and friction, the practice considers the enfolding boundaries that connect materials, bodies, and technology in the complex timescapes of environmental change.
Kino (2014)
Keywords: embodiment, conflict minerals, e-waste
From the silver screen of cinema, to computer and television, to the screen of smart phones, Kino looks at the screen as an ambiguous embodiment of entertainment, human desire and consumption. A short film, a screen made from fine silver ‘pixels’, and a brooch made from the conflict minerals gold and tantalum and e-waste recovered from smartphones’ touchscreens, together reflect on these notions.
​
We carry these minerals in our pockets, as they form the foundation for functioning electronic devices, our mobile phones above all. The brooch, at once reflective and transparent, subtly points to this aspect: We can see through it, but it also shows our reflections, implicating us in a material system based on demand, extraction, supply, and consumption, and whose exploitative mechanisms are very hard to control, let alone escape.
