“The markets for old tech in Tbilisi are glorious. There’s nothing digital around and there are moments that feel a little bit like Bladerunner.”
Mariam Ben Nakhi is not your usual teenager. Unlike most 13-year-old girls, she has a passion for fixing phones and computers. After school, Mariam can be found tinkering away in her family’s workshop in Tbilisi. Peering into a magnifying glass, the Georgian native connects tiny intercrate parts to breathe life back into defective devices.
Mariam’s interest in electronics was sparked when she was nine years old. Her stepfather, Thomas Burns, a former Hollywood cinematographer and self-proclaimed ‘electronic nerd’, was helping fix a friend’s iMac computer. The colourful wires and shiny components instantly caught Mariam’s eye.
While the father-daughter duo fix consumer electronics for a living, their real passion lies in salvaging and restoring old Soviet electronics from the overflowing flea markets. “The markets for old tech in Tbilisi are glorious, you can find such gems. There’s nothing digital around and there are moments that feel a little bit like Bladerunner,” Thomas recalls.
The family also run a YouTube channel, ‘Workshop Nations’, showcasing reconstruction videos of vintage electronics. The twosome created their channel, partly out of fascination for the retro tech, but also as a way to encourage a culture of repair and restoration.
Pitched, Researched and Filmed for Euronews
Some stills:
Pearly Jacob 