Trash is Treasure Once Again.
BDES 1201
By: Antonio Cicchetti - February 08 2021
How the “Bureau of Suspended Objects” is helping us as consumer become more aware of production of ‘desirable’ objects and question when we decide if something is trash . Antonio Cicchetti takes a deeper look in how we can learn from the objects at the “Bureau of Suspended Objects”
The “Bureau of Suspended Objects” is an art project that puts on display hundreds of archived discarded objects alongside with detailed information about their history in production and specific commercial stories of their lifecycle and even reason for being thrown away in some rare cases.
Started in 2015, the “Bureau of Suspended Objects” has been a collection of selected discarded objects collected from the Recology dump in San Francisco through an artist residency. Started and solely operated by artist Jenny Odell, The Bureau has over 200 objects in its catalog all of which have been photographed and extensively researched and documented by Odell. The extensive research of each object ranges from original promotional subject matter of the object to its manufacturing cycle all the way to the date it was acquired by the Bureau.
Alongside a website of all archived items, the Bureau once housed the objects for showing at an exhibition at Recology in the September of 2015 where visitors could view the objects in person and with use of a clever AR adaptation, could scan the object to see objects in their ‘new’ or ‘whole’ forms.
A couple of the few things that the Bureau seeks to achieve according to Odell’s website is to “Understand the changing symbolic role(s) of objects’ origins, materials, use, and previous/possible lives” and to “articulate the role of images in manufacturing our desire for objects and explore the interchangeability of objects with their images”. Through the use of imagery and in-depth research presented with each object the Bureau does an efficient job of illustrating the harsh contrast in an object, both physical and symbolic/emotional, life cycle. It truly is powerful when an discarded disfigured product is displayed next to its promotional advertisements(1). In some cases through the exhibitions use of AR the object was shown in its original state which spoke volumes of how far the object had come from its once brand new “desirable” state.
Jenny Odell through the use of contrasting displays a strong yet implicit critique of the pseudo symbolic life cycles have been designed to go through and now more than ever is a strong message about production for mass consumption and more importantly the design for desire and when we deem things trash.
In a world where more than ever companies are fighting at every corner for your attention all in attempt to get you to spend and consume the Bureau of Suspended Objects sheds the ugly truth of the aftermath of these once exciting purchases as we see the reality of when objects lose their “shine”. More explicitly Odell explains the longevity of these objects and how they more subjective to our own perceptions .
“A lasting effect of having done this project is that trash feels to me less like an identifiable category and more like a psychological judgment that is as reversible as it is arbitrary. Stores seem full of trash and the dump seems full of products.” (Odell, “I mined San Francisco’s trash for art”)
What does this look at product lifecycle say about the way products are designed, are they built to be purchased and wasted or are we the ones to blame for our emotional consumption and waste? The Bureau of Suspended Objects not only airs out our dirty consumer laundry but asks us to question our own perceptions of our own possessions.
Link to Jenny Odell’s website
Link to The Bureau of Suspended Objects
