The Digital Cleanup Day action was created by Kévin Guerin in France as a complement to the World Cleanup Day initiative. It intended to shine a spotlight on the environmental impacts of contemporary digital infrastructures and how we use them.
Many people are increasingly aware of the digital clutter they create and accumulate, yet taking the necessary steps to address it often feels overwhelming. The original Digital Cleanup Day initiative published a website with useful information about the problem and suggestions for reducing your digital footprint. To take the mobilisation a step further, partners in RISE’s ‘Prototyping Societies’ research department turned the Digital Cleanup Day into a participatory experience and teamed up with art & design studio Cherries Studio to produce a video that accompanies the activity.
In this version of the Digital Cleanup Day, participants perform four 15-minute activities focused on reducing one personal digital footprint across 4 domains; the smartphone, the laptop, the mailbox, and social media (the fourth aspect of overconsumption of social media content was added in this version) while the video work maintains the focus and atmosphere of the activity as well as keeping the timing with its associative allusion to rhythmic activities of daily cleaning.
“After Digital Clean Up Day I started to reflect more frequently how much energy I am using on an everyday basis and how everyday activities on my digital devices are connected to wider ecosystems”, Participant, researcher
The interaction has been tested as open events in two locations. The first in the Electrum Lab in Stockholm which is a hub for research, innovations, and education hosted by the Royal Institute of Technology. The second iteration took place in Gothenburg in a creative space hosted by RISE called Neospace. This has allowed a mix of researchers, companies, students and creative professionals to engage in the activity.
