An exhibition for a non profit called Accelerating Circularity aimed at bringing awareness to the cause of recycled textiles.
Exhibition - The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
May 2024
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One of the main issues regarding textile recycling is the sorting process. Sorting is a highly skilled yet labor intensive job that unfortunately is not very profitable. It can take up to 3 years to train someone to be able to identify and sort fabric correctly and quickly.
While the labels on clothes do state what they are made of, it is poorly regulated, and they are generally incorrect. My team and I created a game where the player picks up fabric disks and must launch them at the correct button. They get points for correctly sorted disks. Halfway through the game, it is revealed that there is actually an NFC chip in each fabric disk which is capable of telling the player what material the fabric is prior to them shooting it. This makes the game significantly easier.
The idea is to show the player that sorting doesn't have to be so difficult through the use of technology. However, it is up to the people to push legislation to require clothing companies to include this technology in their products.
The surrounding shirts and posters contain data visualizations of the current state of textile sorting, and where it could be if changes were to be made. In addition, it pushes action on the viewers to contact lawmakers and clothing companies to enforce these changes.
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