Field survey, the front of a mobile phone repair shop in Geneva
© HEAD – Genève
Field survey, a repair shop of a store in Geneva
© HEAD – Genève
Field survey, the system of storage of spare parts and phone models in a repair shop in Geneva
© HEAD – Genève
Field investigation, a technician brandishes the open phone of a client to show him what does not work
© HEAD – Genève
Visit Huaqianbei, one of the largest mall dedicated to the sale and refurbishment of electronic objects in Shenzhen, China
© HEAD – Genève
Analysis sketch of different repairer profiles
© HEAD – Genève
Comic books presenting anecdotes observed in the field
© HEAD – Genève
Visual analysis of the repair context in a Lausanne store
© HEAD – Genève
Research seminar of 6.07.2018, organized as part of the project
© HEAD – Genève
Production of a series of research fanzines addressing different themes such as repair gestures, tools and machines, shops visited etc.
© HEAD – Genève
Extract from 'Online Scouting' fanzine on existing online content
© HEAD – Genève
Extract from the first issue 'Pre studies' presenting here the communication of the project as part of the Net-Work project (http://onlinedepot.ch/content/anais-bloch-nicolas-nova/).
© HEAD – Genève
Excerpt from the 'Online Scouting' fanzine listing the names of repair shops in Geneva
© HEAD – Genève
From the fanzine 'Tools and Machinery'
© HEAD – Genève
from the 'Online Scouting' fanzine listing the lexicon of repairers
© HEAD – Genève
Formatting the publication, Artisanal Electronics, the smartphone doctors
© HEAD – Genève

Mobile Repair Cultures: from informal repair to silent innovation, the smartphone case

January 2017 to December 2018

Projet led by: Nicolas Nova, Profesor MA Media Design 
Project Applicant : Nicolas Nova
Team: Nicolas Nova, Anaïs Bloch
Funding: Fonds national suisse de la recherche scientifique (FNS)

"Mobile Repair Cultures: from informal repair to silent innovation" is a research project that address maintenance and repair of mobile technologies. In the current debate around the obsolescence of digital technologies, the emergence of repair and maintenance places, such as informal shops, hackerspaces and repair cafés, shows the importance of improving the condition of such products.

This project is situated at the crossroads of ethnography and design. Its purpose is to empirically investigate the various forms of repair cultures happening in such places, by focusing more specifically on smartphones. 
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