Above: Peter McFarlane’s Circuit Board Work I...

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

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We welcome your tips, suggestions, and feedback. Contact: unconsumption@gmail.com

[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.

8:23 am - Tue, Oct 30, 2012: 88 notes

High-Res

Above: Peter McFarlane’s Circuit Board Work

I recently saw the 60 Minutes documentary “The Electronic Wasteland”, about the unscrupulous disposal of toxic computer garbage, and now I’m determined to cling to my iPhone for as long as humanly possible, until it’s utterly unusable. Despite these efforts to control my e-waste footprint, none of it means that my iJunk won’t end up in the pile eventually anyway.

But there must be some way to stop this! If only everyone creatively recycled their dead and dying computer devices. With a little bit of imagination, making “yesterday’s latest technology” into beautiful pieces of art is a nice way to avoid sending the stuff off to fester in a developing country. Here are examples of eight artworks that give us an idea of the range of possibilities for what old computers, cellphones, televisions, and common electronic parts can become.

More: 8 Projects Turning Deadly E-waste Into Beautiful, Non-deadly Works Of Art | The Creators Project