Take it Apart
把它拆了After completing my graduation project and the overall visual design for my alma mater’s graduation season, my life returned to tranquility. For a short while, there were no more academic tasks to disrupt my thoughts—my undergraduate journey had reached a pause, and I could finally savor life. I went boating, cycling, and on road trips. My days felt complete for a long time, until eventually, it all came to an end. Sitting back in my photography studio, I began to feel that I should do something. My gaze fell upon the junk I had salvaged from an old classroom at school—a 2002 Apple eMac computer. It no longer worked. I stared at it for a while, as if my mind had wandered into its intricate mechanical interior. Its smooth curves, pristine white shell, and precise internal structure carried the era’s vision of the future. Every screw, every circuit board, every seam was a devout interpretation of minimalism—a micro-sculpture in the history of industrial design. I wanted to take it apart.
Dismantling an eMac is not mere destruction, but an archaeological dig into ‘consumption’ and ‘memory.’ As tech products evolve at a staggering pace, their physical forms become nameless tombstones in electronic graveyards. Through violent disassembly and photographic documentation, I sought to strip away its utilitarian nature and ask: What exactly do we worship? The design itself, or the symbolic value imposed by the brand? These fragments are like a deconstructive ritual—both a tribute to industrial aesthetics and a satire on ‘unrepairability.’ When viewers fixate on an isolated capacitor or a shattered piece of casing, they might realize: So-called timeless design will inevitably crumble, and our fascination is nothing but an exquisite illusion in the flow of time.
Time:
2025.04.
Category:
Photograph
Self Expression
Designer:
Wang Changqiao
Photographer:
Wang Changqiao
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