Echo-Answering Machine
An exploration in repackaging contemporary products into retro enclosures. The Echo-Answering Machine combines the hardware of an Amazon Echo Dot with a 1980’s Panasonic answering machine. Potential use-cases can be seen in finding alternative uses of a product’s packaging once the technology becomes obsolete.
YEAR: 2021
ROLE: Engineer, Industrial Designer
STATE: Working Prototype
COLLABORATORS:
Independent Project
MEDIA:
Strategy
The primary purpose of this piece was to showcase good practices and procedures when it comes to repurposing obsolete technology into retro electronic enclosures. With a growing amount of electronic waste (e-waste) accumulating in our planet’s landfills, there are untapped opportunities with repurposing our unwanted technology. While much of our mass-produced technology is often considered to be ‘disposable’, I feel that the repurposing of their enclosures is an easy way of celebrating/preserving the industrial design elements of the past!
Final Design
The outcome from this work was a fully functional retro Echo Dot prototype that serves as a conversation around repurposing tech in the academic sphere.
This piece has been at display at the ISEA 2022 conference exhibition in the Centre d’Arts Santa Monica in Barcelona, Spain.