RESOURCE: AN INTERVIEW WITH JANNE SCHIMMEL

A conversation between Matteo Bittanti and Janne Schimmel has been published on the Permanent Beta Network website. Titled Repair as Refusal: Janne Schimmel and the Phantoms of Gaming Hardware, the conversation examines Schimmel’s sculptural practice through haunted consoles, obsolete devices, repair culture, homebrew communities, and the material afterlives of gaming hardware.

The discussion moves from the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death to moped repair, from case modding and permacomputing to Hong Kong’s second-hand electronics markets. Schimmel reflects on machines that refuse access, devices designed to become disposable, and the possibility of treating repair as an act of resistance against planned obsolescence.

The interview also addresses Phantasmic Crystal Interface, Phantasmic Gateways and Their Housings, Story Machines, Case Mods and Ghost Horses, and the broader question of what happens when a console is reimagined as a shrine, a portal, or a ghost machine. This conversation is part of the larger project Shadow Creatures.