SoC (system-on-chip) processors are the basis for all Apple’s iPhones. These are designed by Apple Inc. and are currently manufactured by TSCM, the world’s largest technology manufacturer and service provider. TSCM is also the largest private employer in the People’s Republic of China and one of the largest internationally. In turn, Foxconn and Pegatron, both based in Taiwan, assemble more than half of the world’s iPhones.
A-Series maps the production of iPhones via their respective SoC processors in parallel with key moments in national and personal history. It shares essential data and statistics that show us how technology production is intertwined with geopolitical pressures and constraints in reaction to different social contexts. A-Series is interested in the geopolitical limits of mobile technology, or the way national identity starts to overlap with branding, and the limitations of sovereignty versus corporate power, with corporations allowed certain legal and political rights typically reserved for nation-states.
The history, supply chain details and production statistics of the Apple Bionic Chips allow us to unveil the geopolitical pressures and their repercussions on the development of this technology. Each plate presents data and graphs showing device production processes and their global corporate connections, geopolitical operations, alternative adaptations in particular contexts, and material supply chains for five chips produced for Apple in Taiwan (Bionic A8, A10, A14, A15, and A16). Paralleling the production of the phones themselves, the work employs different processes and materials to create a combined object. Aluminum is used as it is the most common material in every iPhone. Drawing on the aesthetics of corporate patents to share laser-engraved data on aluminum plates, we reproduce the motherboard models using recycled 3D plastic printing and present the Bionic chips in traditional porcelain with speculative designs using AI.
