Dena's Proposal

In the past twenty years society has experienced an incredible pull into the age of technology, where we are forever improving and miniaturizing. Now available are wafer thin computers and MP3s that let you hold thousands of songs in the palm of your hand. It is in our very nature to evolve and constantly use old information to develop new ways to “improve” or simplify our lives; as the computer was an improvement of the typewriter and the MP3 the evolution of the record. With every “improvement” there is a discarded primitive version that is abandoned for the newest product. What I hope to investigate through this project is what actually happens to the discarded or unused technology that lies to waste as a result of our constantly growing demand for newer, better products. I plan to photograph places in the Bay area such as recycling plants and auto scrap yards that deal with obsolete computer equipment and other technologies. I plan to use 35mm slide film and to project the images. Although I like the idea of photographing such subjects with a 4X5 camera, I do not think it will be practical enough to use in such locations and would best be shot with my own Nikon N80 camera and 35 mm film. In using such methods I hope to give my photographs the feeling of abandonment that exists in the unnoticed waste and refuse of the past.