Graduate Studies

Digital Futures (MA, MDes and MFA)

Mazin Chabayta

LD1100 - Roots

LD1100 is a percussion instrument made mostly from reused materials that are commonly discarded by people. It presents an alternative direction and a protest to the wasteful disposal of resources. It demonstrates the amount of resources wasted by people and symbolizes a rebirth for these components and parts that found new purpose and a new life. The concept was to bring a set of components together and assemble them in a way that opens and disseminates seized knowledge. It is designed to be customizable, held on to perpetually and passed on to others rather than to waste. Besides the revival and repurpose of the components that make it, LD1100 is also designed to inspire and activate other makers to make their own versions through the disbursement of an instructions manual that shows the entire process of selection and fabrication.

“We can no longer afford to be complicit users, herded by manufacturers to want and pursue products that serve them. From this moment on, we need to take control of our relationship with our devices and break the cycle that keeps the systems of power in place and our resources in waste. It is time to redefine words that forge a construct where we are waste makers, mere users or technologically illiterate. Let us liberate our objects from this vicious cycle. We have to stand as evidence against these false realities. We are makers, from a responsibly sourced home-cooked meal, to the morally grounded open software, we are all makers and we are all in this together. We cannot continue to exploit natural resources, our making must be committed, first and foremost, to the resources already at hand and devoted to serving our communities and our planet. Our voices must come together for this tactic to propel us towards a better, more humane future. It is time for the makers to stand.”