Permacomputing: repurposing old smartphones

The Sculpture Centre Workshop Programme advances skills and knowledge across all the main visual arts mediums.

Leitrim Sculpture Centre

Lengthening the life of our hardware becomes a clear way to reduce ecological impact.

Smartphone users are often forced to retire their devices because of one faulty component, or the device falling out of support from the manufacturer. Lengthening the life of our hardware becomes a clear way to reduce ecological impact. In this workshop, methods to repurpose Android devices are shared, giving them a second, different life. Our old phones may serve new purposes, such as: hosting a website, becoming an IP camera for wildlife observation or be converted to digital signage / digital display. Bring along any or all of the following: old (Android) smartphones, USB charging cables, sim-eject tools, and a laptop.Any OS can be used, as we will be using the terminal on MacOS, and Linux and the PowerShell on any Windows machines, to connect to the smartphones, so there is no need for any specific OS or any specific software. We will be working to the specifications of the phones, so there is also no need for any particular CPU.Colm O'Neill works as a designer, lecturer and researcher in Carlow and Brussels. His work is concerned with mediations of digital literacy through graphical, user and programmatic interfaces. Current research foregrounds the ecological impact of the infrastructure of digital technologies. The research and practice that result follow the ideals of free and open source culture models. This workshops is part of Colm’s PhD research that aims to assess the potential of permacomputing projects as ways of cultivating oppositional knowledge for digital justice issues in Ireland. During the session, participants will be also asked to join in these discussions, and information sheets and consent forms will be shared on the day of the workshop. (The research into repurposing smartphones has only included Android devices to this date, but ideas and information on repurposing Apple iOS devices are very welcome!)Workshop is held at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre Gallery, New Line, Manorhamilton, F91EAW7

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