Graduation project
Avoiding the Brick
Marco Pagan
Videos and workshops encourage counter-consumerist practices, based on research into the Android smartphone hacking movement.
Independent developers have been creating and sharing modified software for Android smartphones through specialized forums since 2009. Their goal is to provide software support and challenge market trends that promote consumption, like planned obsolescence and system privatization. Avoiding the Brick is a research project that presents the Android modding movement through video lectures and workshops. By contextualizing the movement within the realm of hacker activism, the project offers theoretical insights into this technical practice and seeks to inspire similar approaches to other technologies. Drawing on extensive experience in the movement, Marco Pagan seeks to foster a critical understanding of the intersection between technology, consumerism, and resistance to prevailing market forces.