Olivia Guigue is a French visual artist and photographer. We spoke to her about the inspiration behind her project, ‘Museum for a Future’ – a collection of technological artefacts from the 20th and 21st centuries, found on the Thames rivershore in London. 

TBT: Could you tell me a bit about your inspiration behind Museum for a Future?

Olivia: I’ve always loved beachcombing. When I first visited London, a friend took me for a walk along the Thames, and told me that people find old clay pipes in the riverbed. I found it fascinating that such a big river in a big city could have such dramatic tides, because we don’t have this in Paris. 

So I began exploring myself, and discovered more and more things. This got me interested in what I call ‘pseudo minerals’ – pieces of plastics or manmade materials that are so abstracted from the objects they were before that you don’t really know what you are looking at.  

And then I started to find different items: really interesting, old pieces of printed circuit boards. So I started a new collection, based on the electronics and technologies of the 20th and 21st century. You can see that over a century, the design of the circuit board has evolved. 

TBT: How do you find these objects?  

Olivia: The Thames has dramatic tides twice a day. At low tide, large sections of the riverbed are uncovered, and you can find anything! The diversity in London is so incredible. You find really old historical artifacts, but also a lot of rubbish. Everything is just coexisting in the same context; an accumulation of wonders.  

TBT: What’s one of the most interesting things that you found?  

Olivia: There’s a few. My favorite objects are actually old batteries because the design and system has evolved since when they were first invented. I find them fascinating, because some of them go back to the mid-20th century, and they’re completely different from ones from today. 

You can see their inside – thousands of silvery layers that are completely worn out and half open, so that they become very abstract and organic looking. It took me quite a while to understand what they were!   

TBT: I’m curious, what’s the most valuable thing you’ve ever found? 

Olivia: It depends where you put value. I guess the most expensive objects I’ve found were computers. But you can find rare metals in old technologies that are actually quite valuable. Cell phones use around 40 and 50 different metals and minerals – they even have small quantities of gold! So while they have been disregarded and forgotten, they are somehow valuable. 

TBT: Is there a group of you combing the times out there?  

Olivia: There are a lot of archeologists working on the shore of the Thames – the tidal part of the river is the biggest archeological site in the UK.  

In a way, what I do is a continuation of what they are doing, but in a contemporary path, because what I find is so recent. The objects aren’t so rare, but you have a bit of a history lying within them.  

TBT: Do you have a geology background yourself?

Olivia: No – I’m always learning. What I love about it is that it’s a way to learn about the history of London and the technical aspects of how these things are made. I like to share these insights in the work as well.