MIXED MEDIA ART AND DESIGN FROM WASTE MATERIALS FOR COMMUNICATING SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

Environmental problems arising from production, consumption, and the growing volume of discarded materials affect both ecosystems and contemporary ways of life. This is especially evident in materials with short service lives but long environmental persistence, such as plastics and single-use packaging. This article examines the potential of mixed media art to transform waste materials from “objects that have outlived their usefulness” into “media of meaning” through the concepts of Sustainable Art, Eco-Design, and Circular Design. It discusses the roles of physical properties, histories of use, and material traces as components of visual communication.

In addition, the article proposes a five-stage creative framework: Collect, Decode, Experiment, Transform, and Communicate to enable artists and designers to connect material experimentation with sustainability issues systematically. This approach suggests that the artistic use of waste materials should extend beyond simple reuse or recycling toward the development of a Material Narrative, through which materials can communicate relationships among humans, consumption, culture, and the environment.