Your device will probably die before the piece is complete.

March 4, 2016 2:44 PM

Generation Lamp is a degenerative lamp that lives for a generation (in this case, nearly 32 years).
posted by box (12 comments total)

You call that degenerative? Sheeit, I get lamps from Target that last a tenth of that, if I'm lucky.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:50 PM on March 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

Why?
posted by AGameOfMoans at 2:51 PM on March 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

I like this, but it’s less of a lamp and more of a website you can point your browser at.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:52 PM on March 4, 2016

I think I'll set up a time-lapse camera and take a picture every minute, then when I'm 78 I'll convert it to 60FPS video and watch the whole thing in like 3 days.
posted by Huck500 at 3:07 PM on March 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'd be surprised if the MTBF for recycled phones was anywhere near that long. I guess the tiny gray print acknowledges this:

Your device will probably die before the piece is complete. If that happens, dig up another one and follow the instructions above again.

But isn't the whole point of the kind of long-time-period art this is claiming to be to think about and plan around posterity, rather than just cop out of it like this? Calling this a "complete work" seems pretty half-assed.
posted by RogerB at 3:07 PM on March 4, 2016

It's no pitch drop.
posted by the uncomplicated soups of my childhood at 3:14 PM on March 4, 2016 [15 favorites]

Generation LAMP is so 2008. I'm with Generation NODE.JS
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:31 PM on March 4, 2016 [5 favorites]

I love this sort of art-by-instruction, and I love that this one consists of both instructions for a computer and instructions for its human. The artist should additionally specify that the phone needs to have all its networking turned off after the piece is started, to avoid disruption by over-the-air updates or hackers.

I'm pretty sure this piece will fall victim to the year 2038 problem, but... maybe not! One way to find out...
posted by phooky at 3:48 PM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Here's a [flicker warning] "timelapse" version if you're curious what it'd look like.
posted by lucidium at 5:35 PM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

A cool art project but all I could think was 32 years of wasted electricity.
posted by saul wright at 7:36 PM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

For those contemplating lamp mortality: LAMP (2002)

Wikipedia - Spike Jonez 'Lamp'
posted by bartleby at 10:58 PM on March 4, 2016

I needed a nightlight for my washroom and a use for my old phone. This is IT!
posted by congen at 9:16 PM on March 5, 2016