Obsolete ☎️

We live in an increasingly fast-moving world. Technologies have come in and out of both fashion and function faster than you can say “cassette player.” It’s truly mind-bending. Planned obsolescence is expensive and…hard to plan for (at least, from the consumer’s end).

While it’s humbling to think of the extraordinarily outdated machines—or any apparatus with engineering that's since evolved, likeold-school tennis racquets—you used not too long ago, it’s also fascinating. It’s a shared material history. Each generation of human has particular memories attached to generations of technology that existed at pivotal moments. Thankfully, our art is made to last. Memorializing obsolescence on archival paper is an enjoyable way to reflect on the progress we’ve witnessed during our lifetimes.\xa0

Apart Wind-Up ClockbyTodd McLellan

"In my seriesDisassembly, I photographed old items that are no longer used by the masses and often found on the street curbs heading for disposal. All of the pieces I photographed were in working order. I found it very interesting that they were all so well built and put together with screws, not glue. These pieces were all most likely put together by hand. I envisioned all the enjoyment these pieces had given many people for many years, all to be replaced by new technology that will itself be rapidly replaced with half the use.

"In my work, erasure, fragmentation and simplification represent the imperfect, limited nature of memory and the constant notion of flux we experience in an increasingly digital world. In many cases, I want to create incomplete templates, scenarios that serve as blanks to fill in, rather than specific individuals or events. The constant tech evolution is one of contemporary society's main themes, something I’ve experienced throughout my life. Pixelation and computer manipulation represent the merging of the physical and digital reality, while the people in the images and those old things that were once so important, represent how quickly things change."

"I am obsessed with understanding what it means to live in a branded world, where we associate our identities with the brands and products we buy. These images are part ofBrand Spirit, a series of photographs I shot every day for 100 days. By reducing the objects to a single color and consistent scale, I found unexpected relationships between them. I never imagined a box of cigarettes would have such similarity to a box of crayons. Each image was chosen to represent a particular concept, from commentaries on consumer culture to celebrations of our most loved brands. My personal favorites honor technologies that have since been replaced."