Clay PCB / Patrícia J. Reis (PT), Stefanie Wuschitz (AT)/Photo: vog.photo

Clay PCB

Patrícia J. Reis (PT), Stefanie Wuschitz (AT)

The project utilized artistic processes to unravel the ecological impact and human rights violations inherent in hardware production. The goal was to raise awareness and generate knowledge on alternative commodity chains for hardware production. Following principles of de-growth, it called for decentralized, ethical and sustainable forms of manufacturing electronics. Building on their expertise in queering technology, the artists aimed to decolonize technology using feminist hacking principles.

Eco-feminist decolonial hardware

It is an open secret that the hardware in our smart devices contains not only plastics but also conflict minerals. We investigated locally sourced alternative hardware from an eco-feminist perspective to demystify global commodity-chains. We call it Feminist Hardware! Feminist hardware is developed without mining in harmful ways, environmentally friendly, under fair working conditions, manufactured from ubiquitously available materials, without generating e-waste, with consent, love and care.

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Data Protection Declaration

We researched on fair-traded, ethical, biodegradable hardware, building circuits that use ancient community-centred crafts to encourage de-colonial thinking. Our project titled Clay PCB is an Ethical Hardware Kit with a PCB microcontroller at its core.

Our PCB is made of wild clay retrieved from the forest in Austria and fired on a bonfire. Our circuit tracks use urban-mined silver and all components are salvaged from e-waste. The microcontroller can compute different interactions and is totally open source.

Bios

  • Photo: Claudia Sandoval Romero

    Patrícia J. Reis

    PT

    Patrícia J. Reis is a media artist and researcher whose practice encompasses various formats and media to examine the human relationships with technology with a particular focus on feminism, sensuality, and haptics. She is currently Principal Investigator of the project Hacking the Body as the Black Box at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

  • Photo: Yusuf Agus Kurniawan

    Stefanie Wuschitz

    AT

    Stefanie Wuschitz is an arts-based researcher investigating strategies to decolonize technology. Her publications evolve around feminist hacking as a form of grassroot organizing, mutual self-help and artistic practice. Her animations and installations have been exhibited and screened at international venues. Her current artistic research focuses on Digital Colonialism in Indonesia. She is affiliated to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria.

Credits

Scientific research/concept: Patrícia J. Reis, Taguhi Torosyan & Stefanie Wuschitz
PCB Design: Patrícia J. Reis & Daniel Schatzmayr
3D Printing: Klemens Kohlweis
Clay manufacturing and research: Patrícia J. Reis
Textile work: Erika Farina
Ethical Hardware kit contributors: Melanie Steinhuber, Petra Francesca Weixelbraun, Florian Winkler and Alba from Media Design class at the University of Art and Design Linz, Hannah Perner Wilson, Maria Antonia Gonzales Valerio and Saad Chinoy.

With support from: FWF – Austrian Science Fund (PEEK AR 580); Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; Mz* Baltazar’s Lab
Presented in the context of the STARTS Ec(h)o project. STARTS Ec(h)o is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101135691.