Simon Whetham - Made to Malfunction

“Made to Malfunction” refers to the concept of planned obsolescence, a feature of all consumer products. They are designed to have a limited lifespan, then fail, forcing consumers to replace or ‘upgrade’. In my work I am interested in energies and systems that have some unpredictable element, such as natural forces and malfunctioning devices — non-regular, non- musical rhythms. I have created a collection of sound making devices from parts of discarded electronic products. Each device is presented in its own display case, to be (re-)considered an object of great value or interest. “Made to Malfunction” was created with full support from the Creators-in-Lab residency 2018 with Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea