There lie expansive systems of hidden ecological and human costs behind the mobile devices we use every day. While this experience of designing The LAST Phone highlights the extraction and impact of four critical minerals, it is important to recognize that numerous other resources, both human and natural, are being exploited to bring these technologies to our hands. Each smartphone we hold connects us to a complex global network of mining, manufacturing, and distribution that often remains invisible to the end consumer. As we have seen, the environmental degradation and human rights issues that accompany this process are profound and far-reaching. The LAST Phone aims to initiate more than conversation; it seeks to inspire a movement towards transparency, sustainability, and fairness in the technology we so heavily rely on.
The Last Phone is an interactive experience that utilizes computer vision and stable diffusion models to visualize the environmental degradation caused by smartphone production. Users place laser-cut plywood phone components under a Raspberry Pi camera, which generates images of the ecological impact of critical minerals like lithium and cobalt. The generated images are then projected onto a display in real-time, highlighting its unique environmental impact.
Through the creation of this experience, we have gained invaluable knowledge about the deep and nuanced systemic relationship between technology and the environment. The process of creating The LAST Phone has elucidated the network of both tangible and intangible systems responsible for every tech interaction. In this interactive exhibit, the audience extracts minerals from the physical terrain made with plywood, following the narrative mentioned in the brochure. As the audience extracts the pieces and assembles the phone under the Satellite camera, the corresponding image generated by the Sketch-a-Sketch model will also worsen.
Reflecting on this project, we dove deeper into the conversation about AI’s role in design, particularly Interaction Design. The LAST Phone reinforces our belief in AI as being a facilitator of creativity and innovation, rather than an entity that is primed to replace jobs. AI/ML tools such as ChatGPT, Runway ML, and Teachable Machine have not only allowed us to go beyond the previous limits of our imagination but has allowed us to conceive and prototype these ideas rapidly. With the option of implementing user feedback and iterating upon our processes with the assistance of AI tools, we could take our idea from an image recognition model, into a real-time interactive experience.
Special thanks for my teammates Deeya and Audrea, and for our sponsor, The Frank-Ratchye Studio for making this possible.