“Waste not, want not.” 16th century proverb or Creator Studio mantra? You decide. There’s no shortage of original creations and tangible works of innovation in a variety of materials at USC Iovine and Young Academy, but there’s also no shortage of the excess these constructions leave in their wake. Thankfully, “scraps” aren’t taken for granted around these parts. The superfluous wood, fabric, metal, and even boxes used in the Creator Studio aren’t discarded and tossed aside – they’re up for grabs to turn into the next project. To keep the cliched idiom party going, we want to remind everyone… one student’s scraps could be the another student’s treasured prototype.
According to the EPA, landfills received 12.2 million tons of wood a year and 11.3 million tons of textiles in 2018. Ethically handling artistic waste means giving it a second chance. Call them found objects or call them trash – scraps are plentiful at IYA, and they’re a sustainable conduit to low-cost, low-waste, and low-pressure ideas coming to life. What would you make with these “free materials?”