Phone Story
Sure, you have a smartphone, but did you know that your fun times are only one
small segment of its life cycle? This app presents four mini-games each
representing different aspects of its creation, sale, and disposal. The first
mini-game takes place in the Congo, where the mineral Coltan (columbite-
tantalite) is mined by child slave labourers under watch by armed guards.
Next, it’s off to the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, where the player,
using a suicide net, tries to catch despondent workers attempting to commit
suicide after working 36-hour shifts by flinging themselves off of the
building’s roof. Then it’s off to the Pear Store, for a brief visit to the
first world and its problems — where a store manager attempts to meet the
frenzied demand for the store’s smartphones by rabid customers storming its
front entrance. Finally, the game whisks players away to Pakistan, where a
grubby family dismantles obsolescent tech gadgets rolling by on a conveyor
belt, extracting the e-waste’s precious mineral value in an environment of
harsh chemicals and acrid, carcinogenic smoke without the aid of protective
gear.
Phone Story