Nemo Equipment uses recycled tents and manufacturing scraps to make the Ditto line of wallets, totes, and backpacks.
(via Gearjunkie)
Posted by: stevechaney
unconsumption
Tips & suggestions: unconsumption@gmail.com
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 or Goodwill) to find a new home for the functioning VCR 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:
Tom Hosford, college student & Murketing Organization intern, Long Island, NY
Andrew Whitelaw, branding/design strategist, Chicago, IL
Steve Chaney, industrial designer, Portland, OR
Kate Bingaman-Burt, artist and educator, Portland, OR
Amy Shaw, writer and curator, Brooklyn, NY
Brian W. Jones, designer & writer, Hale County, AL
Rob Walker, journalist, Savannah, GA
[This project is a spinoff of the book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, by Rob Walker.]
Core77 has some great images of designer Måns Salomonsen’s rescued and upcycled furniture.
via core77
Posted by: stevechaney
Metal workers in Kenya turn cement bags into bellows to stoke the fire, forging everything from anchors, to chisels, to coconut shellers.
(thanks, boingboing)
Posted by: stevechaney
Upcycling, or just marketing?
In what seems like an obvious nod to Freitag bags, Target has commissioned artists such as Michael Anderson and Josh Goldstein to design a billboard in Times Square. After it’s made its run, the vinyl banner will be taken down and “recycled” into limited edition bags.
(thanks, PSFK)
Posted by: stevechaney
“Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood of Crafty Sanity shares her methods for making fun, funky jewelry from plastic items in your recycle bin.” Craftzine.
Posted by: murketing
“California-based MotoArt, founded by artist Donovan Fell III, takes decommissioned airplanes and turns their parts into beautiful, functional, unique furniture pieces. The receptionist’s desk up above was once a cowling from a 747.” MotoArt turns dead planes into soaring furniture - Core77
Posted by: murketing
PSFK reports, “the Pollocks art collective recently opened a temporary shop named Worthless that played with notions of consumerism and the perceived value of material objects. Participants brought in a variety of random objects to the London store that would usually be considered junk, everything from old hard drives to tattered shoes. The team at Worthless then set to work customizing all the cast-off goods into unique pieces of art. Customers were then able to buy back their submitted items for whatever the felt they were worth.
Video on the project by Jott.
Posted by: rawlaw
PSFK points at New Leaf Paper’s Farm Fiber Collection, which features a variety of paper products “made of recycled banana or palm tree fibers collected as a harvest byproducts.”
Posted by: rawlaw
Cardboard rugs, by Wendy Plomp.
“I noticed how people gave cardboard new functions—like to beg or sleep on, to draw on or use for hitch-hiking signs, even to break dance on, which gave me the idea to print the inside of a used box with a carpet pattern so that wherever you are, this carpet can be your temporary clean space, your home.” (via box vox: Die Cut Cardboard Box Carpeting)
Posted by: murketing
Evidently skateboard-reuse day:
“Using non-renewable resources that have a minimum impact on the environment, the designers constructed the furniture out of leftover skateboard frames.” Skate Study House Furniture Collection: The Waste is The Best
Posted by: murketing
“I always applaud the effort to turn trash into treasure, but it’s rarely done so well as in the case of these amazing sculptures from reclaimed tires. That the material is such an egregious disposal problem only makes them that much more awesometastic.” — Make: Online : Incredible tire sculptures
Posted by: murketing
Upcycling: Recuperating Past Lives
. On view in Los Angeles. Click through for images from the show.
Posted by: murketing
Jean Shin, Turning Trash Into Artistic Treasure : NPR
“A pill bottle, a losing lottery ticket, a broken umbrella, a long-forgotten trophy: Mostly, we consider these items detritus awaiting garbage collection. Artist Jean Shin collects them and finds artistic meaning and symbolism in these castoffs. Her creations go on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., on Friday.”
Posted by: murketing
Upcycling as Art
Lately it seems quite a number of museums of art, craft, and design have been mounting exhibitions of work made from upcycled materials.
Some recent examples:
Upcycling: Recuperating Past Lives at the Architecture + Design Museum in L.A. (thru May 23)
Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary at the Museum of Arts & Design in NYC
Manufractured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR
A short-lived trend? I think not.
Posted by: amyshaw
