Stories of reuse

[Amy Perlmutter]

I thought this upcoming lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design looked really interesting. It’s Nov 15 at noon Eastern time. Registration link here. https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2snzfht8RlKYn_odmnAsbg

This lecture presents a collection of stories on the use and reuse of materials across building sites, demolition sites, salvage yards, quarries, film sets, and other out-of-the-way locations.

Together, they offer glimpses of the material practices at play in multiple contexts, from the skill-rich but frantically energy-intensive movie industry to the slower, less agile building industry. The materials — and the expertise of the craftswomen and craftsmen that shape them — are the protagonists in these stories.

With destinations such as Bry-sur-Marne, Lasham, Gond-Pontouvre, and Fót, this will be a journey across suburban and hinterland ecosystems where the production, sourcing, construction and disposal of film sets has been pushed to the outskirts.

Horror stories of downcycling dead ends, nonfiction financial and carbon calculations, romantic tales of perpetual recycling, fables of pastiche and patina, green-washing propaganda, oral histories of low-tech solutions, and scripts for industrialised shredding of materials: this anthology feeds myriad anthropological perspectives, and helps tune us into our (damaged) relationship to resources.

This lecture asks: How can we create space for material after-life processes, where demolition only happens as a last resort, downcycling gives way to a blossoming salvage and reuse industry, and dismantling becomes a craft as valuable as carpentry and sculpting? How can we bring more of these stories of unscrewing from the periphery to the front row?

__________________________________

Amy Perlmutter

Perlmutter Associates
23 Avon Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
landline: 617-354-5456

Strategy, partnership building, communications, and 

program design for a sustainable future

www.aperlmutter.com

Twitter: @AmyPerlmutter