Photo: Paul Galipeau

Get Up with Upcycling

For anyone who has created something new from items or materials headed for the garbage or recycling bin, the concept of upcycling is not news. Many people in the arts have, through necessity, been well acquainted with making "silk purses from sows' ears". However the concept of upcycling has begun to inspire artists to stretch their imaginations to allow their audiences the opportunity to experience the mundane and discarded in a fresh new way.

As opposed to recycling, the qualities of the materials are not degraded in upcycling. Upcycled projects question concepts of consumption and sustainability

The Ghettoblast Sound System is a project of the Ottawa area's Kerry Campbell and Michael Caffrey. They shared their passion for upcycling with the CAO.

Is sustainability a core issue with you and your art practices?

Sustainability is the basis of this sound system project. Power for audio and video presentations in remote locations normally comes from petroleum-fuelled generators. We wanted to present a clean alternative that reflected the values of the artists performing and our artistic practice. Our need for sustainability came from presenting shows in locations without power. Usually those locations were deep in forests and crown land and we wanted an alternative to the loud and polluting generators used in these situations.

What inspires you to upcycle to create something new?

Seeing the amount of manufactured goods that become waste bothers us. The amount of resources wasted by manufacturing poor quality products that do not last, products that are designed to exclude repair and become obsolete bother us even more.

What have you been doing to date that transforms the discarded?

The sound system is assembled from abandoned and discarded car audio amps and speakers. Stock car speakers get thrown away. Custom car audio is very fashion motivated, leaving a wealth of compact, efficient but out of style equipment available.

The original power source was discarded wheelchair batteries, which could not provide one full day of operation for a person's wheelchair, but could give us hours of sound and light power.

The solar panels used to charge the batteries are an array of discarded dashboard battery minder panels that were shipped with new vehicles, but ended up collecting dust in dealership stockrooms.

All of our electrical harness connections, safety cases and fuse protected wiring came from scrapped wheelchairs.

Our weather protection materials and projection screens are made from discarded camping gear and test print material from a banner printing dumpster.

The current focus has been collecting exercise machines from the garbage to create pedal driven generators.

Can you tell us of any collaboration you have had that incorporate upcycling or green themes?

Our favourite event is an annual music festival that is in the middle of the woods on crown land. The festival is free, anyone can show up with a sound system but the overall theme of the event is to leave the area in better shape than when you arrived.

We are currently members of Graffiti Research Canada (GRL). This group has developed ways to make graffiti with light. We have taken this system and made it mobile with our alternative energy off-grid power source.

Do you incorporate any other green initiatives in your work?

Last year we brought our preference of cycling into the project, giving our first concert performances in remote locations with the sound system on bike trailers.

What response have you had from your audiences?

People are amazed to see turntables, computers, projectors and electronic performance equipment operating in locations without power nearby. The system also impresses audio focused people when they hear how loud, clear and balanced a small, very homemade looking battery powered sound system can be.

Each year our audiences grow and awareness of alternative energy sources grows with it. We started out as environmental punks and have progressed to art gallery presenters.

What are the challenges to upcycling materials?

One challenge is getting materials before they go to landfill. It takes a lot of thought and storage space to get and hold on to things that could be useful, or might have another purpose. The biggest challenge is finding older materials of a quality worth reusing. Not even wood seems to be of the same quality anymore, let alone manufactured materials and technology.

We are currently so disappointed with cheap manufacturing that we find it is worth the additional challenges of updating older technology to a level that is compatible with our equipment. Sometimes upcycling is actually more efficient and cheaper.

Text: CAO staff