Gallery: 9 Pieces of Scrap Electronics Repurposed as Art
01memory-2
When his company sent 30 computers to be junked at the local recycling center, Arizona artist Joe Dragt had an epiphany. “Seeing the stack of old computers, the idea just struck me,” he says. “The motherboards can make for a really neat canvas. The complexity and patterns of all the circuits could make for stunning backgrounds.” Dragt picks over computers like an eco-conscious vulture, saving motherboards for canvases and eye-catching circuits for sculptures. Leftover plastic and scrap metal are recycled. Hazardous elements go to a computer-disposal plant in Phoenix. Any cash he earns recycling all this stuff buys more paint. Here's a look at some of his work. __Above:__ *Memory* -------- Here, as with his other pieces, Dragt gives a sly nod to his canvas's original purpose. The motherboard processes data like a brain. The circuits move information like synapses. "My decision to paint a brain in a mason jar was quite simple," Dragt says. "I have a deep interest in human anatomy and love creating anatomically themed images. *Image: Joe Dragt*
02bad-ram
*Bad Ram* --------- This is a pun, a play on ram, the animal, and RAM, random access memory. Dragt's work takes an abstraction of the computer jargon, then renders it in a literal form. *Bad Ram* was commissioned by a client who wanted a zombie ram to "munch on the actual computer RAM." Dragt assembled some IBM printer daughter boards with some Dell and Compaq circuitry to make the piece work. He almost passed on the piece because he couldn't paint on the component side of the board. After rummaging through his pile of parts, though, he found a "decent-sized" Dell motherboard, which he combined with a small Compaq board. "I would have to say this piece was my absolute favorite to work on, because of the challenges," he says. *Image: Joe Dragt*
03bluetooth-2
*Bluetooth* ----------- The skull features a single blue tooth, an allusion to the Bluetooth connectivity standard that links your phone to your earpiece or your computer to its speakers. Dragt likes drawing skulls and thought a skull would go perfectly with the gold Asus motherboard. "I guess the gold, to me, gave it a pirate sort of feeling," he says. "The Bluetooth was an afterthought." Fun fact: According to legend, the name came from 10th-century King Harald Bluetooth, who was credited with uniting Denmark and Norway. *Image: Joe Dragt*
04cntrl-x
*Cntrl X: Frankenstein Women Bleed Too* --------------------------------------- The macabre wrist-slitting depicted in this piece gets its title from the Ctrl-X command, which everyone knows is the keyboard shortcut for "cut." Control" and X keys are planted on the motherboard and covered in red paint. "I am a keyboard-shortcut hound," he says, "and I knew that I had to do a piece that visualized *Cut*." Dragt says he isn't making light of suicide, and he is aware of the impact such a decision has on others, because he's known someone who committed suicide. "The reason why I chose the woman to be green is to give the subject a Frankenstein–not-real aspect," he says. "People who go through the thinking of or process of suicide often think that they are alone in the world, nobody understands them, or people are just downright mean to them or disregard them. Being the Frankenstein is not real, implies not being able to bleed. And though Frankenstein was shunned ... by many, he still has feelings and needs to be understood, just like people who ... have committed or tried to commit suicide." *Image: Joe Dragt*
05linux-2
*Linux* ------- This painting takes the operating system's famous penguin mascot, ordinarily a cute cartoonish creature with big eyes, and gives it a sinister look. It's the first in a trilogy that will include Windows and Apple, but Dragt won't say anything more. "I don't want to reveal too much, for I want people to put together the story on their own," he says. "I think that a lot of techy people will really get a kick out of this series." The penguin carries a bushel of apples that points towards the OS's Goliath peer. *Image: Joe Dragt*
06time-that-heals-all-wounds
*Time That Heals All Wounds* ---------------------------- The sculpture is a collection of functioning and defunct computer components attached to a female torso. "This piece was a classic situation of 'I have all this crap laying around, and what to do with it,'" Dragt says. "One-hundred percent of this art piece was literally slapped together on the fly with no planning whatsoever." An LED lamp shines down from the neck, a motherboard is the heart, a working clock ticks in the stomach, and the spine comprises 38 hard-drive read/write arms. *Photo: Tavit Daniel*
07twitter-o-d
*Twitter-O.D.* -------------- This is Dragt's take on Twitter's iconic bluebird mascot. It has keeled over and died. The piece was inspired by the countless celebrities whose tweets have landed them in trouble. "Naturally, at least in my head, a dead overdosed Twitter bluebird who has tweeted too much was the image of choice," he says. *Image: Joe Dragt*
08viral-worm-2
*Viral Worm* ------------ This one's an obvious metaphor for the vermin that too often infect a computer after opening an infected attachment. "I am a huge fan of the movies *Dune* and *Beetlejuice*, so it was easy what I wanted to paint — a sand worm," he says. *Image: Joe Dragt*
09a-time-to-kill-2
*A Time to Kill* ---------------- This is a work in progress. The clock features a variety of scrapped technology, and Dragt plans to use bullets to mark the numbers. *Image: Joe Dragt*
10joe-dragt
Joe Dragt --------- This is Joe Dragt. Most of his originals have sold for $100 to $150, but framed prints and greeting cards can be had for between $5 and $55. *Photo: Joe Dragt*
