Powerpoint Slides for a Weeklong Creativity Education Series in Lawton, Oklahoma

 

What can you do with an Aluminum Can?

Kick it, recycle it, rip it apart and use the pieces for a dress, the aluminum can is an resource that I just cannot get away from. It is ubiquitous, everywhere and just an annoying sight to see. It is cliche and even worse, past-che. Sorry for the eye sore.

The very beginning of the aluminum can begins at the moment I empty its contents, usually a soda. In Buffalo, the can is worth 5 cents recycled, and the process leaves a nasty sticky film from the spillage of the soda on the floor on the bottom of my shoes when I leave the recycling center in a supermarket. That can means many things from a kid’s game to pocket change with a gummed up shoe, but taking apart (without a knife) the can with your imagination expands its uses even more.

What do I mean by taking it apart with your imagination?

The can is a label that leaves the can as a container. The metaphor, which is the label “can” applied to the piece of aluminum, creates what it is. It limits the imagination since the can is a container first that has many expectations latched to it. By taking it apart with your imagination, I mean that the can be seen from different perspectives that open up the possibilities of how it might be manipulated and put to use.

I could look at that can as a sheet of aluminum for artwork, in which case the graphics on the outside of the can might serve as a piece of a montage. Or I might see that can as something that can be cut into two and become two pots for flowers. It just happens that one of the pots has an automatic drain to keep the soil dry in a proper way. (Wait to see what I turn this idea into in a week.) Best of all, I will get 5 cents back when I am finished with my project.

Imagining how the can to not be a can is a first step to identifying new solutions to old problems of how to live sustainably.

How else might you apply this trick of redefinition to change an object? Leave some comments below. I would love to see my reader’s ideas.

Bicycle Disaster Relief

Ben Dechard, a design student in Portland, won Design21 Power to the Pedal design competition featuring a portable electric generator that can be powered by the wheels of a bike.

As he writes:

“This product combines elements of two very separate concepts to create a product which has multiple target group opportunities. Simply put, the product is a small power supply unit that recharges by attaching a bicycle. Using design aspects of a stationary bike trainer and a portable power supply, the product offers consumers a way to power small everyday electronic devices during power outages. “

 

This is one invention that should find its own niche market.

 

http://www.design21sdn.com/competitions/11/entries/3238/gallery