Extra Marital Love Workshop
What and Why
This is a workshop I hosted around March 2026 at XML. The aim of this workshop is to get
acquainted
with XML and
push through the borders of hardware to get into the squishy soft bits, where documentation, manuals,
circuits
and get to know the
devices we home in the media lib. It is very common to be afraid of a device especially if it is old. There
is
an assumption of fragility
even though this fragility can mean an opportunity to repair or to take things apart, to look deeper into
them.
Plan
- Everyone gets inside of XML and chooses a device that's calling them
- Make a pzwiki page for the chosen device and complete the form
- The form asks for these details:
- Name(given by a previous user or you can name your device during the
workshop)
- Model
- Does this thing turn on?
- Quantity
- Year of Release
- Origin Country
- Manual
- Hacking
- Misc Links
- References
- Gallery
I wanted to used this workshop to dive deeper into the idea of Resurrection, to dig into a
hardware
to find out
about the
history and past of the device and then think about the future of that device or that technology. I find it
interesting to think about
deprecation in technology and hardware, to look into the now and the future of the same purpose. It is an
exercise to build awareness and
fun around the planned obsoletion of digital media.
Output
During the workshop the participants(and I) made 11 wiki pages corresponding to devices in the
XML.
- ORIC-1
- Fuji DL-30
- Technosaurus
Microcon
- Intellivision
- Pony_CB_16_walkie_talkie
- Digital_Multimeter
- Apple_QuickTake_100
- P-touch Labelmake
- Dazzle Video
Creator
- HUSH_80_S
- Fisher-Price_C6324
Reflections and Observations
When I was planning this workshop, I wanted to really lean into the origins of the devices,
where
did they come from,
where were they made. I see these devices as border objects where the shell is a contractually protected
border
and we are repairers, examiners who contribute to the
archeology of them, we are collaborators and we are a part of its history. When I asked Claudio what would
make
sense to ask for this workshop he told me
that he has a list of some devices and he includes "Does it turn on?" as a yes/no question. I added that in
as
well so we all work towards
a similar point. At the end this question became the part where we all got stuck the most because we all
wanted
to make our machines work!
That was th emost profound outcome of this workshop, to just try to turn the device on. We all looked into
the
manuals, read some, shared
interesting projects that were done with these devices by others. Eventually, this workshop made me do a
huge
deep dive into ORIC-1 (the device I chose) and taught me a whole
lot of new things.
At the end, I think this workshop can easily be repeated with different groups of
people(interested
in devices or not) and
especially in media museums and libraries.
What and Why
This is a workshop I hosted around March 2026 at XML. The aim of this workshop is to get acquainted with XML and push through the borders of hardware to get into the squishy soft bits, where documentation, manuals, circuits and get to know the devices we home in the media lib. It is very common to be afraid of a device especially if it is old. There is an assumption of fragility even though this fragility can mean an opportunity to repair or to take things apart, to look deeper into them.
Plan
- Everyone gets inside of XML and chooses a device that's calling them
- Make a pzwiki page for the chosen device and complete the form
- The form asks for these details:
- Name(given by a previous user or you can name your device during the workshop)
- Model
- Does this thing turn on?
- Quantity
- Year of Release
- Origin Country
- Manual
- Hacking
- Misc Links
- References
- Gallery
I wanted to used this workshop to dive deeper into the idea of Resurrection, to dig into a hardware to find out about the history and past of the device and then think about the future of that device or that technology. I find it interesting to think about deprecation in technology and hardware, to look into the now and the future of the same purpose. It is an exercise to build awareness and fun around the planned obsoletion of digital media.
Output
During the workshop the participants(and I) made 11 wiki pages corresponding to devices in the XML.
- ORIC-1
- Fuji DL-30
- Technosaurus Microcon
- Intellivision
- Pony_CB_16_walkie_talkie
- Digital_Multimeter
- Apple_QuickTake_100
- P-touch Labelmake
- Dazzle Video Creator
- HUSH_80_S
- Fisher-Price_C6324
Reflections and Observations
When I was planning this workshop, I wanted to really lean into the origins of the devices,
where
did they come from,
where were they made. I see these devices as border objects where the shell is a contractually protected
border
and we are repairers, examiners who contribute to the
archeology of them, we are collaborators and we are a part of its history. When I asked Claudio what would
make
sense to ask for this workshop he told me
that he has a list of some devices and he includes "Does it turn on?" as a yes/no question. I added that in
as
well so we all work towards
a similar point. At the end this question became the part where we all got stuck the most because we all
wanted
to make our machines work!
That was th emost profound outcome of this workshop, to just try to turn the device on. We all looked into
the
manuals, read some, shared
interesting projects that were done with these devices by others. Eventually, this workshop made me do a
huge
deep dive into ORIC-1 (the device I chose) and taught me a whole
lot of new things.
At the end, I think this workshop can easily be repeated with different groups of people(interested in devices or not) and especially in media museums and libraries.