Where we’re at

Where we’re at’ is an interactive installation that reflects on the similarities and differences between the global e-waste crisis and a specific local tradition of precarious survival in Eastern Europe. Its materials and circuits are composed of trash, its stripped copper is sensitive to the touch. It aims to provide a window into the experiences of people who engage with lomi’ as an ever-so-unpredictable livelihood. Lomtalanítás, or lomi is a once-a-year-only junk clearance when whole neighborhoods of Budapest, hundreds of households all simultaneously, are allowed to dispose of their bulky waste on the street to be collected by the municipality. Lomi is the practice of going over these hills of waste the night before the collection and scavenging useful things from the bulk, a practice common in all places where lomtalanítás happens. Traditionally, lomtalanítás serves as a (partial) livelihood for people in extreme poverty. They select, transport and sell the waste by categories to several parties (recyclers, companies, village markets, etc). The finding, selecting, transporting and sales of the materials happens within a one-of-a-kind informal economy with its own unwritten rules.