A testament to global sameness and affluenza induced conduct, the Babel Waste Capital up-cycles what the city throws away. Styrofoam packaging is collected from the neighborhood and erected as a tower in a few short hours. This sculpture represents an extension of a city reconstituted from its own refuse materials. The star form represents a single 30 second flash of Styrofoam e-waste produced in New York City from packaging materials for new refrigerators, microwave ovens, speakers, vacuum cleaners, and other electrical appliances. Our city disposes of heavy volumes of consumer e-waste daily. This project rethinks and upcycles what the people throw away. Styrofoam packaging was collected from local neighborhoods and transformed into a didactic installation.

The aim is to confront the public with the trash our city produces in just moments. In the future, we shall make no distinction between waste and supply.

Here waste is up-cycled into usable systems for building or sculptural folly. Exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with DJ Spooky and Terreform ONE as: “Of Water and Ice - A Concert of Compositions Based on Water and Arctic Rhythms” in Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. Also shown at New Museum, Ideas City street fair: An installation made from discarded styrofoam rises in front of Raumlabor’s Spacebuster, a mobile inflatable pavilion commissioned by the Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Credit: Mitchell Joachim, Melanie  Fessel, Maria Aiolova, Wagdy Moussa, Spencer Nelson, James Schwartz, Jacqueline Hall, Bart Mangold, and Paul Miller AKA DJ Spooky.