Accumulated Depreciation is an accounting concept that quantifies the amount of value a given asset loses each year. Interestingly, this loss in value is considered an asset, not a liability. I find this puzzling and also amusing. So much of how we view the world is rationalizing the way it is, rather than deciding how we want it to be and doing the hard work to get there.
My installation by the same name is composed of discarded cords of all types — casualties of another concept many companies are guilty of: planned obsolescence. The cords, cables, chargers, and headsets that are in this installation are in most cases perfectly functional but have been rendered useless as technology companies innovate and retire old models to keep us buying regularly. Alone, these discarded cords are worthless, but collected together and reinvented they are given new life. I coil these cords, leaving their ends exposed so their previous use can be identified (a sort of provenance, I like to think) and wrap them in teflon tape, a workhorse material used by plumbers to tighten connections between threaded pipes so that no water leaks out. I like the idea that my unconventional use of teflon tape might perform a parallel function for these cords: preserving their last remaining utility from being lost to a landfill. The wrapped coils are arranged together in clusters of cells that feel as though they are dividing and growing, almost taking on a life of their own. Depending on the size of the installation, this can be experienced as threatening, even metastasizing, like our unchecked consumption.
- Subject Matter: Abstract
- Collections: Patterns of Consumption