#BrightLoop

[eacci]

WASTED WORKSHOPS WITH LOCAL DESIGNERS

WASTED is a local-solution initiative, realized through a community Laboratory for small-scale waste reprocessing. The goal for the WASTED Laboratory is to be an engine of both material and social design, where the social benefits of local neighborhood activation coincide with and enforce the aim of setting new sustainable standards for product design. To achieve this goal, the Laboratory hosts design and co-creation workshops for the neighborhood, where local waste is reprocessed into new sustainable material and products for the community. WASTED is made possible by working with local community and businesses to collect and reprocess plastic, while also collaborating with designers to co-create new materials.

The well- developed connection with local sustainable design professionals and pioneers now deserves a moment of attention. WASTED made a plan to connect its community with design pioneers, working with local waste, and organizations to achieve the goal of, through social design, developing collective action in recycled innovation, art, and design.

Nienke Hoogvliet

SOCIAL PRACTICE

WASTED believes that art not only has a personal aesthetic value, but rather also an intrinsic social one that can be used to strengthen a community. Art and design can illuminate our lives, enrich our emotional world, yet simultaneously have a measurable impact on our economy, sense of community and education. Art can connect people together and expose fundamental underlying assumptions and questions. Questions such as what is defined as normal, what perceptions of people are on current societal issues and in this sense, art can offer different perspectives to new and existing audiences. It can help us generate a societal change.

Social Practice is an art medium in which changes and transitions in society are the basis for projects. Artists use their experience and imagination to analyze and research current embedded processes. Together with a community, the artists change the relation between creator, public, the artwork and other stakeholders in order to generate a new perspective. Art becomes a game-changer in the transition towards a new societal establishment. The artists engage and think outside of the box and are actively influencing and participating within society.

WASTED is built upon the concept of Social Practice. Aiming to build a new recycling culture in Amsterdam Noord in which the recycling of waste becomes the standard rather than the exception, we are generating a societal change. Experimental design will be the game-changer in this process. Through developing a new WASTED laboratory in which we can create materials from paper and textile waste, we create a space in which designers and neighbors can engage in social practice together. The purpose of this is to share the designs and process so that others can give feedback, build on and implement local plastic waste upcycling schemes. To build on, pushing new social, material and economic design on the local level. The Laboratory spurs new sustainable standards and practices, while hosting co-creation workshops that generate new, up-cycled objects by and for the neighborhood. For this specific project, these workshops will focus on plastic, paper, textile, and glass waste as a source of materials. Together with our WASTED neighbors, the designers will co-create prototypes made from these 4 types of waste.

Brightloops

DESIGN PROCESS

As we work through a process of co-creation, the outcome of design sessions is dependent on the participants and their ideas. The main premise of the final designs is that they are objects or products that are used/seen in our daily lives. This is important in order to establish a relationship between design, participant and their perception of waste. Creating a visible or much-used product enables participants to see and learn that waste is not merely waste, but rather a valuable resource and can be used to enrich our daily lives. Previous experiences that WASTED has in co-creational workshops have shown that neighbors participate enthusiastically and contribute to the outcome of the design.

Klaaskuiken

WORKSHOPS

We have asked our designers to set up the structure for the workshops that they will host. Each workshop is divided into three sessions. The first two sessions will take place in the neighborhood, in local shops, which are part of the WASTED reward system. For example, the textiles workshop will take place at the Modestraat at Buikslotermeerplein. Together with the specific designer on paper/plastic/textiles, CITIES Foundation will give an overview of the status of recycling in The Netherlands and in Amsterdam Noord, as well as more general background information. For all streams, WASTED will discuss and ask participants how they recycle and what they recycle; what are perceptions on recycling. The aim is to give people insight in how they can improve their recycling rates and allow them to think of how much participants actually ‘waste’.

The designers will introduce themselves and tell more about the role of waste in their design and artistic process. How do they re-use waste within their work and how has waste influenced the way they see design. This will allow participants to see the relationship between design, waste and artistic processes.

  If you are interested in design workshops with the local designers and you want to know which you can participate, send an e-mail to info@wastedlab.nl and we will provide you with all information. 

[christophe-coussy]

Création d'une plaquette commerciale au format A4 en anglais. Client : BRIGHTLOOP