Speaking of solutions, check out the Swap-O-Matic a project by Lina Fenequito. The Swap-O-Matic is a sustainable design project: one part art installation, one part functional vending machine prototype for (yup) swapping stuff within a local community:
The Swap-O-Matic will attempt to promote the recycling of objects through the interface of a vending machine, which features used rather than new products. Participation with the system will allow users to rethink spending patterns, view consumption with a different perspective, and explore issues of material possessions and American consumption through a public installation. The Swap-O-Matic is intended to be both a solution and critical response to the gluttonous culture that we live in today: its core function to support the reuse and recycling of consumer products through swapping among participants. The project’s form, a vending machine, not only supports the function of an automated, self-contained system for swapping, but also frames the interaction in the problematic cultural context which it comments, insinuating notions of the immediacy, instant-gratification, and convenience, values often associated with vending machines.
A prototype currently lives at the Lower East Side Girls Club in New York City with an opening tonight from 5-8pm. Love that retro style!
