Femmes Branchées #48 :: AT WHAT COST ‘NEW’ MEDIA?

Almost daily the new-tech marketplace provides better, faster, and bigger objects to fascinate and seduce us with data driven potential. But before we get caught up in this space race, let’s take a look at the real cost of all this hardware.

Members of reBoot Quebec will join Studio XX members, Chrisa Hoika and Rebecca Wertz in an examination of the impact of personal computers on the environment. Following this, the group will discuss practices and strategies undertaken locally and internationally to reduce, re-use, and recycle what is often erroneously considered digital detritus.

The presenters will make use of visual materials and examples from Montreals own infrastructure and environmental regulations.

This event begins at 6pm and will last approximately three hours with a short intermission. The Studio is wheelchair accessible, and childcare will be available on-site. Please call in advance to register your child.

The presentation will take place in English with translation provided on-demand. Question period following the discussion will be bilingual.

Schedule:

Introduction of panelists

Section 1: Hazards of computer disposal and recuperation

Section 2: Strategies for re-using and recycling technologies

* 2a/ Local projects small scale operations, and a discussion of Montreal’s municipal environmental policies

* 2b/ Economies of scale, establishing a presence on a national level

* 2c/ Issues in industrial waste management

Section 3: How individuals can curb their own expansion, stop buying into the process

Section 4: Global motion of technology

* 4a/ demographics of technology – the issue of race and the technology gap

* 4b/ strategies to transport computers to less developed countriesStrategy and question period

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reBOOT Quebec is a non-profit organization providing computer hardware, networking and technical support to charities, non-profits and people with limite d access to technology. They are a volunteer driven association, located in the West Island. The goal of reBoot is two-fold; to provide at a low cost, essential equipment to communities in the non-profit sector, and to educate the public as to the environmental price of their technological devices.
http://www.rebootquebec.org

Chrisa Hoika is an activist feminist engineer with a background in research on methods of disposal of toxic materials found in such products as batteries.

Rebecca Wertz is an entrepreneur with a background in comprehending Montreal’s challenging environmental policy infrastructure, as well as an encyclopeadic knowledge of global technology-recycling strategies and regulations.

Studio XX is Montreal’s foremost women’s digital resource centre. Through a variety of creative activities and initiatives, the Studio works with women to demystify digital technologies, to critically examine their social aspects, to facilitate women’s access to technology, and to create and exhibit women’s new digital art.

For more information please contact Miriam Verburg: 514.845.7934, miriam@studioxx.org