upcling – Kristen Baumlier

At Camp Pixelache in Helsinki, Finland that I attended last month I met members of Kulturlabor Trial & Error, which is a Berlin-based, non-profit organization that works with crafts, D.I.Y. culture, sustainability, arts and media. The group calls itself a “collective of designers and craftivists, thinkers and doers, artists and project managers” – who implement social and cultural projects. By using media, handicraft and art as tools, the group works mainly in the local community in Berlin, to experience, experiment with and exchange knowledge and skills.

At Camp Pixelache, several members of the group were there with lots of materials on hand that anyone could work with. They also had some of their amazing publications on view. One book is a book called Upcycle it! – A toolkit for creative recycling which gives practical information, information on different materials and interesting articles about upcycling.

Another amazing was the Recycled Creativity Festival 2011 Photobook, which was a handmade book from the Recycled Creativity Festival that was held in Berlin last year. This yearly event celebrates upcycling and recycling – and had music, workshops, yoga, food, film, and lots of cool demos.

At the core of the festival is the idea that, “trash is not waste but the basis to develop our creativity.” One interesting project I learned about that was at the festival was a portable T-shirt project, where any shirt is coated with a light-sensitive pigment. A portable projection setup is used to project the image onto the t-shirt – and voila! A shirt is made. I liked how this was setup on a cart – and could go anywhere.

Trial and Error recently got a space for workshops. Some of the workshops they have coming up include “Make your own 100% upcycled* banner bags” – where you make bags out of old commercial banners. Another project is “Trash of the Month,” where the presenters will check out one specific trash-material and give an upcycling workshop of how to use this material. Past materials were bike pieces (pieces from bicycles), paper, old umbrellas, food (which included dumpster diving, candles, and some other materials.

The group has a mobile workshop wagon which is used to give workshops in public space. The wagon was constructed out of 90% trash, sourced from the local environment

Got some trash that you don’t know what do with? I recommend checking out the Trial and Error website, and check out their books that you can view online.

Image Source:
http://www.trial-error.org/

Links:

http://www.trial-error.org/

http://www.trial-error.org/publications

http://www.recycledcreativity.info/en/home.html

Yesterday I went to the Ohio Fair Trade Expo at John Carroll University in University Heights, OH. The event was organized by the Ohio Fair Trade Network, a group who works to create positive change by educating consumers with a better understanding of the impact of purchasing choices and by educating businesses about the impact of trading practices.

The Expo had workshops, presentations, and a marketplace with fair trade businesses.

One workshop I attended was a presentation by Adam Olson of Oxfam America who presented on the politics of food and trade, and talked how current trade practices contribute to our challenged food system and how some reforms can help break cycles of poverty.

I learned about the U.S. Farm Bill, the primary agricultural and food policy tool of the federal government, and reviewed every 5 years. This bill can impact international trade, environmental preservation, food safety, and the well being of rural communities. One important element that is reviewed in this bill is which crops will receive subsidies.

Adam also talked about how when food becomes fuel – the prices go up. He also talked about how the subsidy of corn to support ethanol undermines the corn market and affects both the U.S. and international market. Surpluses of crops are sold on the international market at low prices, making it so that other countries cannot compete in the agriculture market.

I also attended an interesting presentation by Megy Karydes, owner of World Shoppe. She talked about the goals of fair trade, and how it is not about the product – but about the process and being a good steward of the environment. She showed examples of fair trade organizations that take this one step further and recycle or “upcycle” raw materials to create fair trade designs. “Upcyling” – taking something that would be thrown out or put into a landfill as waste – and using this material to make something new. Some examples included Revy, who sells necklaces out of fish scales, World Shoppe who sells cow bone earrings, and Greenola who makes necklaces out of recycled acai berries and ayayo cloth.

Megy’s presentation was helpful in that she ended with a list of what we could do- which included sharing this information with others, supporting Fair trade where we could, and participating in Fair Trade Day and Fair Trade month (which is right now – October.)

Links:
Ohio Fair Trade Network – http://ohiofairtrade.com/
Megy Karydes – World Shoppe http://www.world-shoppe.com/
Megy Kardes blog – shopfairtrade http://shopfairtrade.wordpress.com/
Oxfam America – http://www.oxfamamerica.org/

Kristen Baumlier

Tag: upcling

Kulturlabor Trial & Error – Crafts, D.I.Y. Culture and Sustainability

“Upcyling,” The U.S. Farm Bill and the Ohio Fair Trade Expo