Laurids & Mattheus; Korpys, André; Löffler, Markus; Kaiser, Marcus
«Collection Point»

During the 'Multimediale 4' multi-media show put on by the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe a red container (3x3x12m) marked 'Collection Point for Old Televisions' was set up in the neighbouring Festplatz. Residents were notified by posters, flyers and announcements in the local press that broken television sets would be collected over a named period.
The collection point opened at the same time as 'Multimediale 4'. About 20 televisions appeared in Festplatz even before the exhibition opened. The collection point was copied in every detail from a real container intended for valuable materials.
183 televisions were handed in on the very first day. (…)
The container had to be closed after three hours on the first day because it was too full. By then 240 televisions had been handed in. Others wishing to dispose of their sets were now sent on to relief dumps. The local paper published an announcement saying that the collection point had been closed because of overloading. After a brief discussion the Karlsruhe municipal refuse disposal department announced that it was prepared to finance another container. The commission was passed on to a firm called Telwest. The second container was completely filled over the next three days. 476 televisions were handed in over five days. Afterwards the sets were taken to pieces manually and by machine at a recycling plant. The raw materials glass and copper, and also various plastics in granular form were reclaimed from the individual components.

Laurids & Mattheus; Korpys, André; Löffler, Markus; Kaiser, Marcus