The starting point of GoldRush is the question of the relationship between Earth’s geology and electronic devices. The artist’s intention is to focus on the materiality of digital media, especially that of personal computers. In the age of the Anthropocene and post-industrial societies, there are masses of discarded and (purposely so) outdated personal computers, which, after a period of usefulness, end up at recycling yards and waste disposal sites. They are often transported to poorer countries, where they become an ecological problem. Simultaneously, the Earth’s natural resources are exploited for the production of parts and components of consumer electronics. Therefore, the artist explores to what extent the digital media are soft, and how much they are based on hard, tangible resources extracted from the Earth’s insides through mining.

GoldRush is created by mining gold from components of personal computers (processors, work memories, graphic cards, modems and different connectors), through the process of post-digital mining. Gold is extracted from computers precisely because it is a natural material and a conflict metal, a status symbol and the object of materialist lust. The extraction is performed by means of chemical processes. Computer parts are treated with nitric acid or a combination of hydrochloric acid and hydrogen peroxide, while the gold is purified using aqua regia. The entire process is sonified, whereas the chemical approach of the process leads in the direction of alchemy. The raw sound of the composition is the result of the strict materialist practice. Contact (piezo) microphones are treated with acids, while the sound of their decomposition, as well as the sounds of chemical reactions produced by the extraction of gold, become the raw material of this composition. In addition, thermic changes produced by chemical reactions are recorded using heat sensors and serve as input information for sound composition modulation that fills this dystopian laboratory. Matter metamorphoses, waste yields gold and sound is created in the process.