Urban Upcycling

Urban Upcyclingby Lennart Fleschhut

Academy of Art University

The moments of watching life pass by as I take pause are now replaced by the need to plug in and socialize without truly socializing.I swipe, pinch and zoom, and scroll as if I’ve become a digital conductor of sorts.The light of my mobile screen is the calming I need to fall asleep each night and the stimulus that starts each day. I’m not alone in this statusphere.I walk and check my screen. I struggle to not drive and check my screen. I excuse myself from conversations or meals to communicate outside. I’m losing my powers of analog observation and perspective in favor of digital engagement.

-Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group, Author of What’s the Future of Business (WTF)

http://linkd.in/PVMZ9h

Everyday you see people checking out in the city on their commute.

We live among each other, not with each other.

X

Online marketplace Etsy, inspired by Street Artist Rotten Apple, will try and disconnect people from the online world and connect people in their everyday life to ......

.... make the urban environment a more joyful, playful and connective platform.

BecausePlaying relieves stress, improves brain function, stimulates the mind and boosts creativity, improves relationships and connection to others and keeps us to keep feeling young and energetic.

http://www.helpguide.org/life/creative_play_fun_games.htm

AndSocial Capital is the biggest predictor for health, happiness and longevity.

http://bewell.stanford.edu/features/social-ties-good-health

The Movement: Urban Upcycling

Design, if it is to be ecologically re-sponsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical in the truest sense. It must dedicate itself to... maximum diversity with minimum inventory... or doing the most with the least.

Victor Papanekdesigner and educator, strong advocate of the socially and ecologically responsible design of

products, tools, and community infrastructures.

Idea: provoke city dwellers into thinking about how urban infrastructure can be repurposed for uses both fun and imaginative.

Points of percussion

Positive Effects ofInteraction/Playing > Disconnection

Positively enhance the urban landscape

Etsy - Corporate Values“Etsy is proud to be a certified B Corporation — a new kind of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.”

“Etsy is a marketplace where people around theworld connect to buy and sell unique

goods. Our mission is to re-imagine commerce in ways that build a

more fulfilling and lasting world.”

“They’re provocations, addresing the latency in the urban environment.”

-Rotten Apple, Street Artist

Supporting Trend: Not Available on the App Store Sticker

Idea: Bring value of everyday things back into the foreground.

http://notonappstore.com/

Thank you for your attention

Lennart Fleschhut