Action research planning: Thinking through doing.

Abby Scott

Reflecting on past projects.

Reusing past projects to create a new working theme.

Experimenting with recyclable material.

Christmas trees that arent recycled are a wasted opportunity to create biomass that could provide nutrients for depleted soil. In our era of remaking, reusing and recycling its hard to believe so many people disregard their christmas trees after use when they could be recycled and used in the soil to help new trees growth.

Stencils i’ve made for creating work, are work themselves.

By inprinting on objects originally made from parts of trees, i am attempting to show what the object once was rather than the focus being on what it is now. The idea is to make people think about howsustainable something is.

Recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products.

Recycled tissues.

Recycled newspapers.

Recycled paper and cards.

Burning into the paper. Tea stain markings.

Berry stain markings.

Evaluation:

Reflecting on the experimentations ive produced so far, I feel the recycling message is conveyed clearly. The images ive created with typography or the typography alone are the stronger in communicating.I’ve really enjoyed making my own recycled paper from pulp as it has allowed me to be creative with textures and colours for what i use as a base to apply my stencilled work. This has allowed me to be more sustainable in my process of working by reusing and recycling materials im using rather than being wasteful. The process of recycling plays as strong a part as the theme of recycling within my project.Using natural dyes such as the berries really allows me to practise what i am preaching.

Where I have began to externalise my outcomes this may be a problem when incorperating the natural dyes as they may wash or rub off. This is something i need to further explore to overcome for whendoing my final major project.

Final major project proposal: Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Its time to throw out the old thinking.Art doesn’t need to be exspensive, infact is can be made from waste. Creating tangible and sustainable work in todays climate is definitely something to be considered.One person’s rubbish is another’s keepsake.I propose to design and make work along the theme of recycling, not only do i want to produce work to express a recycable message but to use sustainable and recycled materials and processes to create my outcomes; practise what you preech.I will produce sustainable art considering the wider impact of the work and its reception in relation to its environment. Manifestations of sustainable design require renewable resources, to impact the environment minimally, and to relate people with the natural environment.Looking at a way forward I would like to experiment with making my own recycled paper; waste not, want not. Then to use this as a base to create on. I will explore using natural dyes and materials using handmade processes and techniques.With increasing environmental concerns, exploring paper as a economical friendly alternative to packaging and other such materials is fitting with current concerns for the environment aswell as the economy in this recession.