"Garbage as Art"

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that using "garbage as art" reminds the viewer that the environment is often a harsh and an ugly place and the rewards cannot always be immediately appreciated. The author points out that "garbage as art" is a tangible, immediate way to suggest to individuals the possibilities of renewal in the environment, a way to recycle the environment and a way for human beings to personally express their ideas about their connections to the natural environment. The paper concludes that, rather than a series of seismic breaks of casting off and then beginning again, by acknowledging garbage's possibilities as art, Western society can see that we must use the past again in the future.

From the Paper:

"Scanlan's poetic musings in "On Garbage" also stress the humbling nature of garbage. All societies are reduced to relics after the death of the civilization. These waste products, such as broken and chipped pots, are now deployed as costly museum attractions. If we are not to bury ourselves in a world with rapidly dwindling space and resources, Scanlan argues, we must grapple with Western culture's mania for discarding things as a way of moving forward. Western culture has denied the natural lifecycle of rebirth, and clung to a false ideal of something beginning from nothing."

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