Wasted by Sofia Fiorentino, Michelle Pedersen, Petra Vicianova

Learning from aboriginal practices from the past and the concept of utilizing everything as a potential material, we explored the concept of food waste in each of our fields of practice. We developed materials and techniques of dyes based on food waste and fermentation.

We aim to frame organic waste from supermarket dumpsters as a resource for making new materials and explore colouring techniques that employ dye processes for soft goods such as fabrics. Throughout our research, we would like to explore organic food waste’s role and how it has been used in the past by different cultures, including the Inuit peoples. With an understanding of the techniques they employed, their life values and traditions, we aim to honour those practices and apply them in alleviating the waste issues we are currently facing as a society in the modern-day. We have initially taken inspiration from the Inuit culture, with a focus on their resourcefulness on using everything they had and their definition of waste. We want to learn from this approach and set of values and apply it to material development techniques in one of the areas where is most needed: the overproduction of organic food products. With a series of different products from the supermarket dumpsters, we will create a system to explore what the different materials can be used for and how they react in different processes in order to find a new purpose for the material. Stemming from our diverse backgrounds (textiles, fashion), we will be exploring different practices or subtopics as listed below: Petra comes from a textile background and her expertise will mainly be experimenting with different materials and techniques, using organic waste as a raw material for generating new materials which could challenge the textiles currently. Michelle, also a textile designer will be focusing on the process of dyeing and printing with different techniques. Sofia’s background is in fashion design and upcycling and recycling aims to challenge the perception of waste we have as a society, transforming food waste into an opportunity to redesign what we perceive as valuable materials that can potentially become garments to replace disposable pieces in our wardrobes. We are going to make a booklet with recipience and material samples, for people who are interested in making their own materials out of food waste. A series of pictures to shift people’s perception of food waste.