Seeing waste in a new light

Ok Upcycling Studio, located in the Re-Centre building in Auroville, recently opened its doors to an innovative, upcycled lighting design exhibition, ‘Illuminating 2023’. With a focus on designing light, upcycling waste, and exploring value via a silent auction, a collection of over 30 lighting products were showcased. Most of them were hand-made with discarded materials sourced at EcoService.

Ok, the studio founder, recounts that last year, the studio created upcycled light fixtures for the Atmaprasara Centre in Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu. From that moment, the studio gained more insight on lighting. They trained two interns from Rajapalayam for a future upcycling studio at the Polytechnic Institute (soon they will be opening an upcycling studio there). Ok invited Darren Blum (a product design consultant from the US, currently based in Auroville) to develop and facilitate a lighting design workshop with the interns in November 2022. What started as a small offering to share good design and lighting practices, grew organically, eventually culminating in this exhibition, empowering our ability to see waste in a new light.

While the focus was on creating with discarded materials, the fixtures themselves were the material manifestation of a much greater experience. This collaboration was particularly enriching for the diverse team in terms of learning, growing, elevating the spirit, and coming together as one.

Designing Light

“Beauty in all its artistic forms, painting, sculpture, music, literature, would be equally accessible to all; the ability to share in the joy it brings would be limited only by the capacities of each one and not by social or financial position.”_ ~ Auroville dream_

During her time living in India, Ok noticed that many households in Auroville and around India do not have shades over the bulbs or tube lights, shining bare light into the surroundings. ‘No bare bulbs’ became a driving mantra in Darren’s conversations as well. Knowing that bare bulbs tire our eyes over time and create a stark atmosphere that can impact productivity, this exhibition wishes to inspire people to see waste in a new light - not as waste, but as a raw material for something new, as a bridge between the past that was waste and a future creating a new, useful, and delightful object.

Light is more than the ability to see. Light creates mood, influences our interactions, and drives how we experience our surroundings.

The upcycled lighting products are illuminated by Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs). LEDs are a revolution in sustainability: LEDs consume approximately 10% of the power needed by previous sources, emit very little heat, and last for years.

Upcycling waste

“Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.” ~ Auroville Charter

By definition, to ‘upcycle’ means to recycle or reuse something in a way that increases the original object’s value. In other words, upcycling is taking something old and creating something new. The raw materials of the upcyclist come from that which has been discarded - waste. With a drive to create purposeful objects and reduce waste, these fearless makers save money, abate consumerism, and shrink the carbon footprint of manufacturing and delivering new products. Influenced by various methods and moods for lighting across cultures, the team wanted to explore uninhibited ways in which more local people can renovate their bare bulb lights, sustainably and affordably, using materials, tools and methods that can be easily replicated.

For ‘Illuminating 2023’, the upcycled light fixtures have been created from discarded home appliances, various plastic-based everyday objects, natural raw materials from wood to metals and newspaper and used coffee capsules.

Value and pricing

“For in this ideal place money would no longer be the sovereign lord; individual worth would have far greater importance than that of material wealth and social standing.” ~ Auroville dream

As the countdown to the exhibition got closer, the studio was buzzing with enthusiasm and energy pushing from concept to completion. The question of how to price the pieces came up, a classic topic for healthy debate amongst creatives! The team created a price list. While designing the product gallery tags and posters, a team member kept having this nagging feeling that perhaps there is a way for us to practice in our little way for money to not to be the defining factor for the worth and value of this work!

The team aligned on exploring and experimenting with a silent auction. Our core criteria at this point was to keep the auction simple, provide clear communication around the what, why and how, and establish trust. The silent auction allowed us to make pricing a participatory process with our audience. The silent aspect removed competitive bidding and allowed for an artistic, design-led immersion at the opening reception on January 13th. The outcome from the silent auction has been beyond expectations, and humbling.

We hope that ‘Illuminating 2023’ inspires and encourages people to take on DIY projects, embrace the maker in each one while finding the delight and drama in upcycling waste!