Our mainstream culture is victim to huge amounts of tangible and psychic excess. I see this excess taking form in the mass marketing of products, media and information overload, landfills, and even in the way people treat each other.

I feel that we, as a culture, would be wise to shift our consciousness towards the awareness that we don’t need to consume and acquire excessive amounts in order to survive. Our (lack of) awareness, as a whole, bleeds into our wellbeing which affects our physical environment as well as our psychic and emotional environment(s). I feel that our tangible ‘trash’ is a good place to start because it is a physical reminder of what we put out into the world, and it empowers us to take responsibility for it.

Upcycling is a component of sustainability in which waste materials are used to provide new products. It is generally a reinvestment in the environment. This process allows for the reduction of waste and use of virgin materials. “Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value.” The term upcycling was coined by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, authors of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

I have been a freelance designer for many businesses and have observed the amount of trash that is put out into the world – for the sole purpose of being a profitable competitor in a dog-eat-dog economical empire. This has effected me so much on an emotional level, that I find balance in salvaging this trash and putting it out into the world as something useful that will hopefully replace the purchasing of a mass-marketed product. The materials I use as a palette for my concepts are salvaged materials found mostly in corporate trash bins and dumpsters. I usually end up at SCRAP gathering pieces and parts to make something work.