Lessons from the scrapyard: creative uses of found materials within a workshop setting

This paper focuses on a spectrum of workshops developed by the authors, collectively referred to as Scrapyard Challenges. These workshops ask participants to create a computationally designed object within a fixed time frame using cast-off materials and junk. Depending on the focus on the workshop, participants develop musical controllers, fashion-oriented wearables, or street interventions. Though operating in diverse application domains, each workshop introduces a “third place” where creative appropriation of materials and playful experimentation is the primary reward. The end results have been remarkable, with both the novice and advanced participant producing highly creative prototypes. Each variation of the workshop and selected results are shared and detailed. Future work, as well as the implications of this approach within a singular workshop setting and a classroom is discussed. The Scrapyard Challenge workshops have been deployed in six different countries and have contributed to curriculum development for a graduate-level class which utilizes the workshop principles at the MSc. Multimedia Systems course at Trinity College Dublin.