So this, admittedly, is an experiment. Photos of ‘garbage’, yes definitely an
experiment. I acknowledge that I am not the
first person of any genera, artist, conservationist, writer, preservationist,
naturalist; to take on the subject matter, or am I attempting, in all likelihood,
to be the most effective. However, despite
both of these contingencies, offered mostly because, I am well, photographing
garbage, very interested in the idea of what we consider trash. There are actually some interesting questions
here; how do we acknowledge or fail to acknowledge discarded objects, why do we
discard things, why do we create things meant to be disposable and ultimately
what if anything does all of this say about us.
This photo record (which will be ongoing) is inspired by my
current collaborative work with the Creative ReUse artists of the Rockford
MakerSpace in Rockford, Illinois. We
have endeavored to create, for public display, an ‘art’ installation entirely
from reusable materials, calling it aptly Garbage In / Art Out. Last week, as I sorted, stacked and attempted
to creatively arrange objects I began thinking about all of the ‘life’ these
random things had experienced before they came to be piled up in our in-progress
makerspace. Pieces of this and that, Christmas ornaments,
wire, chairs, toys, a variety of decorative items, lamps, bird cages; these
things were once new and chosen, they elicited pride, perhaps excitement and
were valued.
It is striking that we create so many objects for the
purpose of their being discarded. This
was the thought that came upon me this morning as I walked the riverfront path in
downtown Rockford. I gradually realized
that all of the things I was seeing lying on the ground, wrappers, cans,
bottles, etc., had been made to be thrown away.
Those are the images included below, a recording of random things,
dropped, left or otherwise discarded. These things became interesting because I chose to give them my attention, because I started looking at them differently, and that began to give them a new value.
I suppose in a way most things are made to be discarded, we
make most of our purchases with the understanding that eventually that thing will become obsolete for us; the
cloths will lose fashion, we will lose interest in the game, the décor will no
longer fit our taste. It is interesting
how value fades, or how it changes. So
is this the factor that determines when and if a thing is to become garbage;
when the value is gone?
The even more interesting thing is that value can be made
new, reassigned and reconsidered. And so
awaits the collection of dissimilar objects in our makerspace garage, and so
awaits almost every object in your current proximity, at some point their value
will shift, whether it is when you are done drinking that Coke in a can made to
be tossed or when your favorite sweater no longer fits quite right. This begs us ask two new questions; how do we
choose to interact with objects and how do we choose to value them? So really, what is garbage anyway?
