Kevin Kelly, author and former editor of Whole Earth Review and co-founder of Wired as well as board member of Long Now Foundation, has a website Street Use that “features the ways in which people modify and re-create technology”, or examples of what William Gibson described as “The street finds its own uses for things.” Examples include community payphones, Prison Knives, Soviet household innovation, and IEDs.
Similarly, Jan Chipchase blogs on Future Perfect about how people adapt technology, based upon his user research for Nokia.
Other writing on grimmer technological adaptations are:
- Mike Davis, writer and urban theorist (see previous posts on Mike Davis planet of slums and world urban forum), writes on the history of the car bomb in the Poor Man’s air force (part 1) and Car bombs with wings (part 2).
- John Robb, a writer on technology and terrorism, writing on Open-source war.
- Temporary Services, an art group, produced an exhibit of Prison Inventions