Earthing Discharge

Collage of photographs of electric currents generated by the exploitation of precious minerals

Earthing Discharge (Panorama) is a collage of photographs depicting objects associated with technology and energy use – minerals, circuit boards and personal devices.

Arranged on a large wall installation, the images are shot with high contrast, highlighting the electric fields and radiant glow of the objects. Dijkman’s labor-intensive process involves activating the conductive material with high-voltage electricity and photographing it through conductive glass similar to that used in smartphones and other devices.  The resulting blue and purple halos and irregular linear rays, a phenomenon known as a corona discharge, are caused by the ionization and electrical disruption of the adjacent air. The photographic collage makes visible electrical currents that we rarely see, drawing attention to the extraction systems that support much of the world’s modern energy, communication, and mobile computing technologies.

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Crédits & mentions

Produced as part of the research for On-Trade-Off, an ongoing art research project that raises awareness of the environmental and economic implications of the extraction and processing of lithium, the main raw material needed for global green energy production, initiated by the arts organizations Picha (DRC) and Enough Room for Space (BE).