Upcycling and sustainability
Upcycling is the act of reusing disregarded objects/materials to create a new product of higher quality or value than the original.
Sustainability is the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level, normally avoiding the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance.
I was first inspired by upcycling from Sami Elu, whose first instrument had upcycled parts. After looking into it, upcycling is a route I would like to go down. Seeing old instruments that have no purpose anymore is a sad sight to see, but there’s normally a reason they have been forgotten, whether that’s to it being broken, too unusual, or too hard, and the reasons go on. But being able to use something disregarded into something new is an amazing idea. Not to mention it is a lot cheaper.
This (1) is an interesting journal speaking about sustainability and upcycling in bigger companies from 2013. repurposing and using biodegradable resources actually had companies gaining money, such as Herman Miller. A quote from Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Micheal Braungart states, “human beings don’t have a pollution problem, they have a design problem. If humans were to devise products, tools […] and cities more intelligently from the start, they wouldn’t even need to think about waste, contamination, or scarcity. Good design would allow for abundance, endless reuse and pleasure.”
Skip LaPlante (2) is a musician that upcycles all his instruments and performs in an upcycled band known as Bash the Trash (3). They focus on upcycling instruments and music and teach how to do this. They showcase how instruments work and how to reproduce this, making guitars with rubber bands, drums out of balloons and a horn out of hose pipe. Skip has made somewhere between 200 and 300 instruments and has made 200 compositions with them. While his works are more focused on upcycling common instruments, how he creates them is fascinating.
For my Autozither, I am planning to upcycle mostly the body. While I could upcycle or recycle the electronics, I think it would be very hard to source these with consistency). DC motors can be homemade, but would they be as good as new ones? The motor controllers would be extremely difficult to recycle or upcycle as well. These factors are why I’m buying the new electronics and will attempt to upcycle the rest of the instrument.
For my final prototype, I got an old autoharp which I will modify. While I do feel bad modifying an antique, when I saw the shape it was in, I realised that nobody wanted it, and it would have to be reimagined to be wanted again.
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