MicroCycle manufacturing station in Union Square, NYC.

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How tightly can a product's lifecycle be compressed... and what are the ramifications of doing this? The MicroCycle Project attempts to ask these question as a public performance. A mini manufacturing station is set up in NYC's Union Square; scrap material from a nearby business is used to create shopping bags. The salvaged materials traveled 3 city blocks before being repurposed into products that would minimize waste.

The MicroCycle Project was initially realized in Bushwick, Brooklyn in 2008. The second performance in June 2009 incorporated two mobile solar kiosks I designed and constructed for Solar One, providing power for the sewing machines.

Though difficult to prove, I theorize that the public fabrication and the local connection to materials serves as a mnemonic device, helping users remember their shopping bags, thus avoiding neglect, the downfall of the ubiquitous reusable tote bag.