destroyed apple products
apple destroyed products by michael tompert and paul fairchild all photos by michael tompert and paul fairchild
a series of smashed, mangled, shot up and melted apple products are the subject of a recent photography project by a san francisco-area graphic designer who said he’s trying to make people think about their relationship with these universally beloved gadgets.
michael tompert said he had spent the last several months purchasing the newest in apple consumer technology and then creatively destroying the pricey toys. the results, which he photographed, briefly went on display at a gallery exhibition that ran over the weekend at the small live worms gallery in san francisco.
tompert said the idea for the project came to him after he gave each of his two sons an ipod touch for christmas. he said the two boys fought over one of the devices, which had a certain game on it. fed up with the quarrel, tompert said he grabbed one of the ipods and smashed it on the ground.
‘they were kind of stunned – the screen was broken and this liquid poured out of it. I got my camera to shoot it,’ tompert said. ‘my wife told me that i should do something with it.’
in all, tompert created 12 images of destroyed apple products, working with his friend paul fairchild, a photographer. ‘they had to be a brand-new product,’ tompert said. ‘it’s not about destroying old products. it’s about our relationship with the new.’
his methods of destruction varied by gadget. to destroy an iphone 3g device, he used a heckler & koch handgun to blow a hole through it. to obliterate a set of ipod nanos, he placed the devices on a train track so that a locomotive would run over them.
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“zabriskie point” over and over again…
this really excites me!
It is fuckin stupid. I want apple product and i cant buy one.
I can´t see the intresting point…
damaged to the point of hell and it still looks good..
You need professional help.
A crime of passion
kill them aaaaaall!
It looks better this way.
how is the ipad still working? Keys are still visible on lower half of the screen…
Not exactly the most environmentally sensitive piece, especially given the lackluster poorly controlled result.
Rich gen-xer. Cool lower shots look like Terminator T1000.
This are not so expensive products , I don’t see any smashed/burned G5 Quadcore with all the RAM modules …. as well as the biggest cinema display
The moment I see that, I will consider this guy serious not just a freak wannabe that wants to get a low cost personal promotion from apple
amazing ..
real freedom is destroy what the people need.
Very nice trigger point of this so called art BTW,
Smash my sons Ipod touch on the floor.
Dude you seem as questionable parent as artist…
You could have directly smashed the kid , you could try that for a change
nice, realy like it. but i would not call it photos anymore
ITS FAKE!!! LOOK CAREFULLY…
These are beautiful color studies. Thanks for showing them
michael tumpert must be a first class asshole…
no matter what there will always be a moronic ego centered jerk to make useless lame pseudo arty crappy statement. period.
(if your wife tells you to get your head on the rail track next time be kind enough to follow the advice. no pictures needed though.)
nice!, a mockery for the very symbol of today’s advanced technology!
surrealist expression to apple products!!
pretentious art fail. stupidity win.
right direction
I wonder if some of the comments above (for and against Apple) were made by people who actually read what the aim of the project was:
“he’s trying to make people think about their relationship with these universally beloved gadgets.”
In one respect, the artist has succeeded, simply by looking at the comments thread, you can see he has made people think.
Unfortunately, I think he may have failed due to the types of comments above. I doubt there is a single person here who has actually about the implications, their own dependency on technology and what it means to them.
The emotional connection to an inanimate object, is sometimes quite disgusting:
“I couldn’t live without my iPhone”
is a statement that angry comments should be made towards, not the artist or his act.
Furthermore, would the people here pay attention if it were a £20, 8Gb media player from “Wallmart”? of course not, because that would hold no value to you, again the idea is to show you how much value you hold in these items as a juxtaposition to how much actual value the item has.
I urge the next person to comment, to actually have a look at the work and think about their own dependency on technology before making a careless judgement
I fully understand the Artist’s intention here. We are as a society immersed in technology. Arguably to an unhealthy degree. I myself value my Blackberry for how it can help to improve my quality of life. Being someone with processing and working memory problems, my gadget becomes an extension of my mind, in that it can perform the tasks that I often fail at. I also understand the Artist’s passion in throwing his child’s gadget to the floor and his frustration at how this technology can cause envy in people. I’m not advocating the Artist’s actions, but he does have a very valid point in my opinion.
It is just about “art” ‘s dependency on technology.
@ terrybarriff.com
it would be nice not to patronize people the way you do mister how-to-make-your-brain-work-properly.
it is precisely the “he’s trying to make people think about their relationship with these universally beloved gadgets.” which is nothing but a very wallmart philosophical question.
the idea technological devices are prothesis to modern man is 70 years old new idea.
The core idea was good, the way it was presented was good but what’s the point in contributing to the industrial wastes we can’t even dispose of?
Stunning!
incoherent ramblings of an imbecile parading as an artist.
Rather Da-da-esque in it’s execution, pun intended. There was a gun involved at one point, right?
It is hard for me to take him seriously. After reading about the inspiration for his work, it is simply a visual temper tantrum.
I am sure Mr. Tompert will enjoy his 15 minutes of fame. Maybe 5 minutes more with a good publicist.
I’m surprised that mdl hasn’t commented on this. Then again mdl is a wanker mdl is a wanker mdl is a wanker mdl is a wanker… oh oh my apple keyboard must be broken
Society is far too obsessed with technology.
All of these grumblings only reveal people’s true greed and unhappiness with “modern life”.
Let’s go back to pencil, paper, and playdough. We’d all be much happier and content…
While we’re at it, allow only original Scrabble rules. Proper nouns? The end is surely near.
“fed up with the quarrel, tompert said he grabbed one of the ipods and smashed it on the ground.” What? inspiration? this does not get me thinking constructively about my relationship with these devices.
right. next you’re gonna smash up your kids and call it art.
We know he’s not on Jobs’ Christmas Card List. Could he be on Bill and Steve’s?
It’s illegal to put stuff on train tracks.
Not if you own the train and track it isn’t.
Quelle Idioteque!!
someone is really jealous of apple…
Never seen Apple products looking better – nice one
groovy.
Why? This is utterly useless “art” and a waste of perfectly good mechanics. How creative to destroy something that someone else might actually need and use.
the majority of people who have commented here take themselves far to seriously.
heheh i just love it!!!!
Now THIS is modern art.
All in the name of art of course…what a waste
this is fuckin sick looks unreal
shutup you wannabe art geeks fuckin nerdsssssssss
Don’t kill the product i would have had it!!!! wah wah fuckin wah
Heh. The reactions, as is always the case with something like this, are priceless. And to boot the images are stunning as well. Love it.
It’s such a bore!! And it’s been done million times better before by Nam Jun Paik and many others.. I hate the tribute to Apple which is just another project trying to surf on the fame wave of Macintosh!! And it truly is a waste of properly functional products that should have better be donated to people that can’t afford a computer at all! Two thumbs down for this project leaving aside the danger of a train wreck due to the guys stupidity!! It’s not art that’s for sure!!!
the fact that we’re all on our computers at this very moment spending time commenting on this, and the fact that he’s using a camera and other technology to present this concept to us, says a great deal about technology as well. its ironic that he’s criticizing the worlds dependance on technology through the use of other technology.
also i think you’d have to do more than simply smash ipods to get your idea across
I ran over my phone once. Am I a modern artist?
I quite enjoyed viewing this portrayal of resentment toward modern technology. Granted, technology has its benefits; but when we become so attached that these objects are a necessity rather than a mere tool then we’ve gone too far. What better an icon to depict this with than the over-glorified Apple brand. It is well recognized and its devout customer base is sure to get a rise out of this artists expression. And it seems that it worked. All of you complainers have proven yourselves entertained by the pieces in some way or another. I think it’d be interesting to see the result of this technological passion depicted. The emergence of these objects from a human heart that is eroding from the forces of nature. Maybe that would speak the point a little louder. But don’t get me wrong… I love technology. It’s truly a love hate relationship. Quite a dilemma.
this is really food for thought…
Apple worshippers/fans/fanatics must be crying in their closets when they see this.. and praying to Steve Jobs to forgive both Michael Tompert and Paul Fairchild for they know not what they have done.
I fix products that come in looking something like this. I keep saying people should learn how to take care of their expensive apple gadgets. Someone has to work hard to put this stuff together and when it gets broken (not…quite…like this….tho) someone has to work hard to put it back together. Think of the Logic Boards!
I would have had that phone, and swapped you my old one if you just wanted to break it.