Category Archives: Reuse

Humans: Inherently wasteful, or good stewards? (And, why this question misses the point)

People are making more waste than ever before. The desire to luxuriate and waste is part of human nature. Humans are inherently wasteful. We’ve heard it before. But I doubt it. So I did an experiment: Rubbish Topographies is a landscape made of donated trash. Although the pile of tea bags and cardboard may bring to […]
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Public Service Announcements for Trash Foragers

Picking up discarded items from the curb can be tricky, even in a city as practiced as New York. Who wants to risk hauling a TV down three blocks and up four flights of stairs to find out it doesn’t work? Or what if that nice side table has bedbugs? Luckily, artist Sarah Nicole Phillips […]
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Creative Reuse in NYC

Material for the Arts in New York has been an inspiration and catalyst for creative reuse across more than three decades. A collaboration between the city’s Departments of Cultural Affairs and Sanitation,* MFTA connects unwanted stuff with eager arts and education organizations. Under the savvy leadership of Harriet Taub, objects that would otherwise become part […]
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From wheelchair ramp to art

My good friend Dan Fenellon, known to many in the digital design world as “Wavedog” (http://www.wavedog.com), needed to build a wheelchair ramp at his home for his son, Brooks.  Brooks has a disability that required him to be in a wheelchair for some time; however, due to his own efforts and the help of a […]
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