E-Traffic Ziggurat describes the flow of information technologies. Each of the five layers of the city is made from a skyline of an individual city tied to the movement of electronic goods. The top layer is San Francisco where the ideas and design of products and software pour out of Silicon Valley. This information moves to the Asian markets of cities like Singapore and Taiwan where the products are manufactured for western consumption. Various cities of the United States are shown in the fourth layer, where the goods spend their working life. At the end of their usefulness the electronic-waste is shipped back across the Pacific where they are disassembled and recycled in Asian landfills.

E-Traffic Ziggurat uses modern architectural profiles superimposed on an ancient one. The basic form alludes to Mesopotamian, Mayan and Japanese temples, all of which are central tiered structures. The work emphasizes the interconnectedness of both natural and manufacturing cycles through a physical metaphor. We hope to spark interest about the different lives of the devices people use everyday and illustrate how those devices shape the global landscape.

Environmental issues are raised at every level of the electronic cycle. At each level more could be done to make the process less detrimental to the earth, workers, and the communities in which they live. From mining raw metals, to chemicals used to produce and clean components, the impact is enormous. What is most disconcerting is the end of an electronic good’s life. These machines often contain lead or mercury. Abandoned to landfills, they leech the chemicals into the soil and ground water. Companies will often accept your e-waste for a nominal fee. However they may not recycle the materials themselves but outsource to Chinese or Indian workers. In many parts of Asia, the complex process of reducing the electronics to their most basic parts occurs not in a controlled factory atmosphere, but in what have come to be called e-waste cities. Nearly all members of a village will process e-waste inside their homes, in their street clothes, often using charcoal burners to smelt metals from the silicone circuit boards. These villages must import all of their drinking water. As the e-waste spreads, rates of cancer, reproductive problems, and birth defects have risen sharply. We suggest supporting companies such as DELL that make their products simple and cleaner to disassemble. Encourage others to dispose of their e-waste correctly, with a company that has the facilities to process it properly. US manufacturers would also do well to follow Europe and include the cost of recycling in the purchase price of any electronic good.