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Writer's pictureBen Ponton

The New Normal

Updated: Jul 31, 2020

In the 1980s, travellers returning from the east, the far east, would relate stories of seeing not-very-old TVs and hi-fis in working condition put out with the rubbish in Japan. Consumer electronics were being upgraded and remodelled so fast that, in a society apparently wealthy enough to do so, last year's model could be thrown away and replaced with the new. From archaeological finds to microplastics, the human presence on the planet can be measured and characterised by what it discards. Burying time capsules as a message in a bottle to be discovered and marvelled at in thousands of years' time is redundant – we already create the archaeology for the future in an everyday casual way just by chucking stuff out.


4 Comments


iamandrewwilson
Jul 01, 2020


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iamandrewwilson
Jul 01, 2020

Reminds me of Zizek trawling throgh the bins - in Astra Taylors 'Examined Life' - speaking of ecology (and nature) in relation to a mis-trust of change ... and finding 'love' in the bins itself. I don't think i'd be eating out of that fridge mind.


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Alan Smith
Alan Smith
Jun 11, 2020

Interesting and curious to think of future archaeologists digging and scraping through soil to find the detritus of this period. A low carbon period and a lot more evidence of drinking alone from bottles and cans. As for the enormity of rectangular bits of blue plastic, how will they be evaluated, usage? perhaps a global religious uprising that required face covering, but not only blue. So many with different patterns, and scripts marking rank and different tribes.

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