Planned obsolescence with its socio-economic and environmental consequences is an intrinsic part of our lives, undeniably linked to overconsumption within neo-liberal extractivist economies.

Obsolescence in the arts is often discussed retroactively as an institutional concern of preservation and access. Issues such as the environmental toll of planned obsolescence, the demands of current technological frames, and the implications of preserving and displaying time-based time based and digital artworks in the future can also be projected onto contemporary arts practice and education.

Providing a critical view that counters technocratic discourses surrounding digital media in the visual arts, this one day event at Fire Station Artists’ Studios will include artists’ talks, group conversations, and a practical workshop, in an open and inclusive environment encouraging an exchange of knowledge, concerns, and ideas, to consider the following questions:
How can artists use media archaeological processes to create new work that engages with these issues and questions market imperatives in subversive, inventive, and socially engaged ways?

How can concepts used to analyse product obsolescence, such as consumer and institutional demand or the distinction between technical and psychological obsolescence be useful to a critical engagement within the arts sector?
How do we approach creating work that uses rapidly changing and soon to be obsolete technologies and how is this work impacted both at source and in the processes of exhibition and conservation by institutions?

By bringing together artists, researchers, and curators, New Obsolescence – Critical Media Conversations considers alternative ways with which to engage technological practices and processes within contemporary arts practice while situating them within wider social and cultural contexts.