Project 2 - Upcycling - Rationale

For this project choosing what up cycling material/s to use was broad. E waste has a particularly big range of materials that I thought was interesting to explore for up cycling as a lot of it becomes useless, in a state of disrepair, obsolete, or replaced by renewed technology every year. It is said that:

•  More than 17 million TVs, computing and electronic wiring is thrown into landfill each year.
• In a 2006 report, the International Association of Electronics Recyclers have reported that the current growth and obsolescence rates of various categories of consumer electronics had reached an average of 400 million units of e waste per year.
• Also the IAER stated that the US e waste is still the fastest growing municipal waste stream, from 3.01 to 3.16 million tons, where only 13.6% of that can be recycled and that most people don’t recycle it. Around 90% of this recyclable electronic material makes it to the landfill every year.

I decided to narrow down the aspect of e waste that contributes to the above figures by up cycling a range of cabling. As our world is constantly developing electronics, attached with cabling that have become extinct. Deciding to focus on using RWY cables as they are used for basic audio video cables on analogy/stereo sound systems but since our entertainment systems are converting to digital/ HD quality reception these cables are useless. I also focused on using any cable of any thickness or lengths that are round depending on the weave I used that suited best. I decided to take the unused or broken cabling from mobile phone charges, laptop charges, electronic mice, printing cables, and internet connections due to their curvature profile. With this cabling I manipulated it by weaving to create a Bike Basket.

The idea of designing a bike basket for this particular project came whilst exploring for a product that utilised the properties these cables had. The cables have strength, flexibility – weave, durable, rigidity and are good with general temperatures. So doing extensive forms of research from looking through magazines, around homes and going to scrap yards, created a bike basket out of wire was a solid idea that embraced the cables capabilities.

The form of which I weaved contributed to the necessities of the basket as the nots/twists are close together to enclose items inside without falling out. This particular weave is seen to be one used for shopping bags that have the same particular purpose as a bike basket. I vied away from the tradition basket weave of an in and out/ under and over motion as it wasn’t able to provide an interesting aesthetic appeal wanted on the form of a bike. It provided an old traditional appeal rather than a contemporary look. I wanted to move away from the common to provide more craftsmanship and value through time spent on the detail of the weave. By doing so, it added elegance and/or sophistication to the basket. It also articulates to being more refined and suggestive to greater strength for a basket.

The choice of black cabling was due to the majority of electronics being black. The colour black also provides a neutral aspect to suiting majority of bikes but also acts as a feature to being sleek and contemporary for this generation of people. The coherent usage of the only black tones of wire but coordinating thickness added variation to the basket avoiding the very cheap and boring basket.

 

Looking at bike frames, basket weaving it was found that most needed a metal frame to support and make the basket rigid. So decided to use the idea of “up cycling” and extend that into finding a frame that is at its end of use. It is seen that only 44% of metal in 2003 was recycled were it is estimated that it could be 60 – 65% so by using this product could assist this recycling process. One that was found and used supposedly came from a filing cabinet system. It is seen to be at the end of its use as most paper work is becoming electronic and the up grading to more practical filing systems having been developed. I innovatively and originally adapted the wire frame to fit the structure of the bike. This was done by cutting down the frame to be a manageable and proportional sized basket for the bike. The basket had to be attached to the bike by bending the ends of the frame that retracted under the brakes and supported by the handle bars. This not only created an up cycled product but also an original self supporting system to attach to a bike.

 

The frame provided a very elongated and streamlining and geometrical structure. It enables to capture the language of being a simple basket that objects can be placed within. The addition of wrapping the wire along the external structure provided a defined line to the basket but also softened the hard frame. By using a different cable choice for the handles acted as a visual indicator as to which way round the basket should be.