Color-Coded Chaos

On this Earth Day, we thought it appropriate to feature work that promotes that trendy buzz word: upcycling. In other words, reusing objects that would otherwise be discarded in such a way as to create something of higher quality or value than the original. In this case, it’s the inventive work of UK photographer Dan Tobin Smith. For his project entitled The First Law of Kipple, Smith basically collected a very wide array of rubbish, then painstakingly chromatically arranged it with such attention, that he achieved pleasing gradients from color to color (no Photoshop filters here, folks). And we’re not talking a handful of objects, but thousands upon thousands. What’s this peculiar word “kipple”, you ask? It’s actually a fictional word that was coined by science fiction writer Philip K. Dick in his 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (the film adaptation was Blade Runner), and is used to describe useless, pointless stuff that humans accumulate. It’s sort of odd even saying it, but Smith’s creative display of such junk is quite beautiful and thought-provoking. This project certainly appeals to our own nerdy desire for order and color harmony.

More chromatic-centric posts here and here and here.

Via dantobinsmith.com and Instagram