Design Map · Eindhoven
TechnoZombies
Graduation project by Marion Jolas at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
With 'TechnoZombies', Marion Jolas explores the reappropriation of electronics by playfully repurposing discarded devices lying dormant in drawers. Borrowing from circuit bending, repair and software tweaking techniques, the designer works with obsolete smartphones, strips them and replaces components, to graft them onto hardware from across three decades to create a network of intergenerational non-human multimedia 'zombie' performers. Each zombie has its own sound identity that ranges from simple, repetitive melodies to more complex noisy, glitchy sounds. The objects are linked through web protocols to for a connected interactive installation where sound, image and sensor data respond to one another. Alongside the group of devices, Marion Jolas makes their process documentation and research accessible on their blog, sharing a log of experiments and a collection of resources. Following the idea that a device is “never dead,” the designer opposes the fabricated opacity of systems and advocates for critical local resources through open source systems and independence through knowledge.