Practice – Working with the Remains of Digital Culture
Dominik Jais works with the remains of digital culture.
From discarded hard drives, circuit boards, floppy disks, images, sounds and obsolete systems, his practice turns technological leftovers into objects, tools, artworks and stories about material, memory, meaning and change.
The remains of digital culture
Digital culture often appears weightless: images, data, software, networks, platforms. But behind it are materials - metals, plastics, glass, rare elements, devices, cables, servers, broken machines and forgotten objects.
My work begins with these remains.
I am interested in what technology leaves behind, physically and culturally, and how discarded materials can become visible again.
Material as memory
A hard drive is not just a broken device. It is a former storage space, a container of work, memory, communication and private life. A circuit board is not just electronic waste. It is a landscape of decisions, connections and hidden infrastructures.
By transforming these materials into objects, I try to keep their stories present instead of letting them disappear into anonymous waste streams.
I'm interested in relationships, flows, patterns and unintended consequences.
Seeing systems
My background in permaculture design shapes how I look at materials and processes.
I'm using observation, design thinking and systems awareness to ask different questions: Where does this material come from? What has it been part of? What could it become? What does it reveal about the systems we live in?
From observation to object
Photography trained my eye to notice surfaces, patterns, decay, light and composition. Design gives these observations a form. Objects make them tangible.
The work often moves from looking closely to taking apart, arranging, testing, combining and rebuilding. The result may be a lamp, a clock, a tool, a photograph, an installation or a written reflection - but my process is always rooted in observation and interaction.
Tools for thinking
Not all outcomes are physical objects. Some become books, frameworks, templates or design tools. I am interested in tools that help people think with their hands, map complexity and move from vague ideas toward concrete action.
This part of my practice connects digital permaculture, regenerative design and practical design processes.
