As noted here the other day, the most recent...

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Your daily source of inspiration for creative reuse and mindful consumption.

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[Background on, & press coverage of, Unconsumption can be found here and here.]

Consumption is a word used to describe acts of acquisition – generally, the acquisition of things, in exchange for money.

Unconsumption is a word used to describe everything that happens after an act of acquisition.

Unconsumption is an invisible badge.

Unconsumption means the accomplishment of properly recycling your old cellphone, rather than the guilt of letting it sit in a drawer.

Unconsumption means the thrill of finding a new use for something that you were about to throw away.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a service like Freecycle (or Craigslist, Goodwill, or Salvation Army) to find a new home for the functioning DVD player you just replaced, rather than throwing it in the garbage.

Unconsumption means enjoying the things you own to the fullest – not just at the moment of acquisition.

Unconsumption means the pleasure of using a pair of sneakers until they are truly worn out – as opposed to the nagging feeling of defeat when they simply go out of style.

Unconsumption means feeling good about the simple act of turning off the lights when you leave the room.

Unconsumption is not about the rejection of things, or the demonization of things. It’s not a bunch of rules.

Unconsumption is an idea, a set of behaviors, a way of thinking about consumption itself from a new perspective.

Unconsumption is free.

CONTRIBUTORS:

Founder & Editor: Rob Walker, journalist, Savannah, GA

Editorial & Community Manager: Molly Block, marketing and business development geek, Houston, TX

Brian W. Jones, designer & writer, Göteborg, Sweden

Kashvi Kumar, Environmental Studies and Economics major at New York University

Deirdre Nelson, ever threading artist, Glasgow, Scotland

Shanna Trenholm, writer. catalyst. force of nature. San Diego, CA

* * *

Alumnus & Unconsumption logo creator: Clifton Burt, graphic designer, Portland, OR

Further information about Unconsumption can be found here.

4:53 pm - Sat, Jul 7, 2012: 18 notes

As noted here the other day, the most recent installment of music/sound/art site Disquiet.com’s ongoing series of “assignments” for electronic musician/composers had an Unconsumption-y theme: “Record the music to a PSA using sounds sampled from your garbage bin.” Specifically, participants were instructed to use sounds produced by four objects from the trash as their musical “source material,” uploading their creations to Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.

The results are in, and they’re pretty cool! To listen to any or all of the 15 submitted compositions, go here, or use the embedded player above. My favorites included one of the more soaring and atmospheric tracks: “The Rime of the Ancient Pacific Garbage Patch,” by Westy Reflector:

The four objects used:
wine bottle (napa valley, ca, beringer pinot grigio, via ‘prime time wine and liquor,’ brooklyn, ny)
cracked sea shell (rockport, ma)
snipped guitar string ends (ernie ball heavy-bottom/light-top custom set, via peekamoose guitars, 30th st, nyc, ny)
bendy straw (china, via freshdirect dot com)

The live sounds recorded:
wine bottle dropped into bathtub w/ sea shell
wine bottle submerging
blowing into empty wine bottle (long blow, two-puff, one-puff)
spinning-in-air guitar string ends
low-e guitar string scraped across sea shell
pieces of sea shell tapped on each other (a one-shot and an 8 bar live loop)
blowing into straw while opening its bendy accordion joint
clean open of the bendy straw accordion joint