Visual StudiesSavannah Hayes
REGENERATION: UPCYCLING IN DESIGN
My senior thesis explores the question of how we might satisfy our culture's escalating appetite for more and better design, without further devastating our environment through an accelerated piling up of discarded products. We live in a climate of heightened demand for new and exciting design. However, this growing awareness is in direct conflict with our need to limit the production of waste. In one lifetime, it is easy to use and discard many iterations of what is essentially the same product. This project explores various methods of regenerating some of these discarded items, elevating them from their status of rejection, to one of desire. The intent of my project has been to investigate and engage different methods of upcycling, the process in which used, found, and/or throwaway materials are reworked into products of high design quality. Utilizing discarded objects, I have explored different approaches to product design. From simply appropriating found objects to dismantling and recombining them, as well as fabricating new objects from raw materials, I have explored a variety of methods of upcycling.