Flickrl rug - Recycle the digital waste!

Babita Sajnani . Jun 24 2011

Around the world, a lot of initiatives are being taken to support the cause of recycling through deforestation, mass urbanization etc. We all strive to contribute our bit to keep the environment clean by reusing stuff. However, soon a time will come when we will have to perform a clean-up function on the Internet too as that is bombarded with information in the form of pictures and text every hour.

Flickrl rug

A major amount of energy is being used in uploading and storing a number of photos by utilizing digital tools like Flickr. It is estimated that an average of 3,500 photos are uploaded in 60 seconds i.e. almost 1 million photos every five hours. Though, these pictures might be of no use, these are safely stored on the Internet, thus contributing to digital waste. Therefore, in order to create awareness on digital waste, Flickrl rug makes reuse of the 2,000 photos uploaded one the photo sharing site on February, 2011. The Flickrl rug comes in dimensions of 4m x 0.8m and is a perfect representation of what happens during 30 seconds of logging on to Flickr on the Internet. This idea, undoubtedly, is unique and will surely contribute to our effort of keeping the environment clean by recycling waste material.

Flickr Rug

Flickrl rug as explained by Stefan Hölldobler

While a conscience has developed for environmental protection expressed by energy efficiency, recycling, food production and its waste, it is easily forgotten that also digital media, especially the internet, are using up a lot of energy. Statistics support this claim. For instance the CO2 output of the internet infrastructure is equivalent to that of civilian aviation: one search with google can easily consume 1 to 7 watts depending on the source you want to trust. The fact is, activities on the internet are energy consuming - and hardly anybody is aware of it. The Flickrl rug represents exactly this unconscious waste of energy demonstrated by the picture platform Flickr. On average 3500 pictures per minute are uploaded, i.e. 1 million pictures every 5 minutes. What kind of pictures are we talking about, and what happens to them?

Flickr Rug

Whereas the Austrian “Fleckerl” rug that is made out of fabric and cloth remnants, diefabrik reuses for their Flickrl rug 2000 pictures which were uploaded on February 2, 2011. These photos are printed on woolen felt, cut into stripes and then woven into a 4m x 0,8m rug. The result is a breathtaking rug which can either be used as a normal rug or hung on the wall as a stunning piece of art. Every Flickrl rug exists only once and is not reproduced. And why should it, there are plenty of photos uploaded every minute which nobody needs!

Thanks, Stefan Hölldobler [DieFabrik]