Mining: Twenty-First Century Raw Material

Mining: Twenty-First Century Raw Material

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For us, disavowed materials form our local habitats and exist as a byproduct of human activity. 

The practice of Mining is to appropriate oneself with otherwise unclaimed resources and collect this free basic material, The Twenty-First Century Raw Material. This abundance of seemingly infinite materia affords our process, welcoming experimentation and failure. We mine what we value.

“Technological Disobedience” the Cuban’s systematic disrespect towards complexity, closeness, and exclusionary characteristics of industrial objects' logics - Ernesto Oroza. “Worker, build your own machinery” Che Guevara Insisted in a 1961 speech as the Republic of Cuba faces scarcity of resources due to the country's economical and political crisis. Cuban workers were to strategize a self-production, repair, reuse and repurpose. A re-appropriation of technologies took place and trickled down from an industrial necessity to a domestic commonplace.

 In the 21st century, technology is evermore airtight, closed to the user, rejecting repair and facilitating disposal. Intervene on the object's authority by repairing it, capitalizing on planned obsolescence becoming a co-designer to the open-source ecosystem. 

Home is a laboratory.

-OpenCo