For this project I began with an old, non-working computer monitor. I found this monitor on the sidewalk like I find many things abandoned by my neighbors. I encounter “free piles” every day which consist of trash and occasionally some nice or useful things. Other people pass by the same piles and either ignore them or frisk them for scores. Outdated E-waste is particularly characteristic of these piles as technology which is no longer useful is often denied even at thrift store donation centers.
With this project my goal was ultimately to make pedestrians on my street take a second look at this disposed-of monitor with an introduced element of confusion. I wanted to do something subtle that would render the object further useless, but in a way that doesn’t draw extra attention and doesn’t lead to any resolution. The fate of the object has not changed but it has forced some who have walked by it to give some small consideration to it.
I achieved this by stenciling the Xfinity logo onto the display with spray paint. I chose the Xfinity logo because it is widely recognized, related in some way to how the object is traditionally used, and features no counters in its letterforms which would complicate the stencil.
After painting the logo onto the display, I left it outside my apartment where I could observe how the public interacts with it from my window. It was left in the same place I found it, where it sat for three days without any interest taken in it. Fewer people walked past than I expected, but of those people there was a much higher degree of interaction than there was before the logo had appeared. Why would someone tag the Xfnity logo on it, or maybe they wondered why Xfinity themselves added it? But for why?