Kevin Kelly -- Street Use

Kevin Kelly -- Street Use

The reinvention of discarded technology is one of those practices lumped in the category of cultural movements beneath the banner of 'post-industrial society' -- a kind of bucket for signifiers that don't make sense, a la Marx's "Asiatic modes of production."

Street Use is a site that shows up gomi, the junk on which the 'shiny, shiny new' cultural logic of late capitalism shines. I appreciate that the site itself is a simple affair, but in this facade it holds a mosaic of complex de/ontological issues. One look at the categories informs you of this 'crisis' for living, for praxis: Cargo, Crude Technology, Hybrids, Personal Mods, Rapid Prototyping, Repair Culture, Vehicles... This isn't headless activity. This is creation guided by use, use by want, want by drive and prohibition.