Benjamin Gaulon


Benjamin Gaulon is a French artistresearcher, educator and cultural producer whose work explores the environmental and social impacts of consumer technologies. Since the early 2000s, his practice has addressed issues such as planned obsolescence, consumerism, disposable society and consumer culture through circuit bending, hardware hacking, and media archaeology. He has previously released work under the name "recyclism". More recently, Gaulon has expanded his research into ecological and technological symbiosis, co-founding the collective Nø and Nø School Nevers, and developing projects such as the .

Biography

Benjamin Gaulon is known for critical interventions that repurpose consumer technologies and question the lifecycle of electronic devices. His projects often address obsolescence, electronic waste, and the hidden infrastructures of networked systems, through interactive installations, workshops, and performances.
He received a degree in Visual Communication from l'École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Strasbourg and a MFA in Interactive Media & Environment from the Frank Mohr Institute. During his time at the Frank Mohr Institute, he developed several high-profile projects, including de Pong Game, the Recycling Entertainment System, The PrintBall and Corrupt.
After Graduating, Benjamin Gaulon started leading and co-founded the in 2007. Since 2005, in collaboration with Lourens Rozema, he is running workshops entitled the e-waste workshops, inviting participants to create art projects from recycled electronic waste.
From 2006 to 2013, he was a lecturer in fine art media at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, where he taught courses on digital media, electronics, and critical approaches to technology.
From 2013 to 2018, Benjamin Gaulon was Assistant Professor and Program Director at Parsons Paris, where he launched and directed the BFA in Art, Media & Technology and the MFA in Design + Technology. He also served on key academic committees and contributed to faculty recruitment, training, and student advising.
In 2018, Benjamin Gaulon co-founded the collective Nø with artist, a non-profit dedicated to promoting emerging art and design research on the environmental and social dimensions of information and communication technologies.
Since 2019, he has also been co-director of Nø Nevers, an annual summer school and festival in Nevers, France, combining workshops, lectures, and exhibitions on digital culture and critical design.
He currently teaches at SciencesPo, École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, CentraleSupélec – Université Paris-Saclay, and is a regular lecturer at HEAD – Genève.

Notable projects

Recycle Bin Project – An open-source software intervention exploring digital waste and the lifecycle of deleted files.De Pong Game : Augmented Reality – An augmented architecture interactive projection.Digitalrecycling – An online community project.Corrupt – An online glitching software.The PrintBall – A modified paintball gun used as a printing device, merging street art, robotics, and hacking culture Recycling Entertainment System – An interactive installation.2.4 kHz Project – A series of works repurposing wireless camera signals to expose the lack of privacy and security in consumer surveillance devices.Hard Drivin – A Twitter controlled installation. ReFunct Media – A Hardware hacking installation.Internet of Living Things — Developed during a residency at, IoLT is a prototype "technological totem" merging obsolete artifacts, live plants, and electroculture devices, investigating how electromagnetic fields might influence plant growth and how electronic waste can be reimagined within ecological systems.The Internet of Dead Things'' — This book explores the creative reuse of obsolete digital devices and electronic waste. Developed through ', the book presents projects that transform outdated technologies—like Minitel terminals—into functional, open-source tools, investigating sustainability, planned obsolescence, and the ecological and cultural potential of “dead” technologies.

Exhibitions

Selected exhibitions, screenings and performances include: