Ectoplasm #3 (Serial RS232 printer cable, various usb cables, hdmi cable, Phillips CSW 5500 Impedance 6 OHM speakers, IBM ThinkPad T2) is part of a series of photographs that emerged from an interest in the way infrastructure is often only visible through its absence. The infrastructural side of media technology tends to escape our attention, as cables are hidden under the oceans, wireless signals invisible to our senses and e-waste processed in remote and inaccessible recycling centers. In our daily lives we access some of these infrastructures through bins and manholes on the street. Bins direct us to the waste industry and through manholes we might get a glimpse of fiberglass and optical cables under the ground.

The word ectoplasm refers to the materializations of spirits from the human body that appear when the protoplasm that is present in our bodies was disturbed by supernatural forces. As a kind of white goo, an ectoplasm would ooze out of the body’s orifices. On old, grainy, black and white photos, one could see strange white shapes emerging from a person’s mouth, nose, ears, or other orifices. Photography was especially suitable to document the ectoplasms as the film hid textures that would otherwise reveal the papier mash or cardboard that they were actually made from. Sometimes the ectoplasm was shapeless, but more often it came in the form of a known person from the past, perhaps a deceased family member.

In Ectoplasms, shapes emerge not from people, but from orifices in public space like manholes and trash bins and carry in their bodies discarded scanners, tv-screens, cables, and other e-waste. These holes function as connections between public life and more hidden facilitating infrastructures. Like the old ectoplasms, these are also made of paper mash, and documented in black and white. Different is that in these shapes and forms its not people or family members that appear, but fragments of electronic equipment that have been discarded and thrown away from society.

Written by Hyeisoo Kim.