awebsite/content/project/2025-04-15-master-thesis/index.md

+++
title = "Master's Thesis"
date = 2025-04-24
authors = ["Aron Petau"]
description = "Human - Waste: A thesis examining interactive workshops"

[taxonomies]
tags = [
  "archival practices",
  "recycling",
  "hacking",
  "liminality",
  "maker-education",
  "materialübung",
  "matter",
  "object-value",
  "plastics",
  "peer-learning",
  "re-valuation",
  "recycling practices",
  "scavenger-gaze",
  "skillsharing in workshops",
  "thesis",
  "transmattering",
  "technische universität berlin",
  "research",
  "university of the arts berlin",
]

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+++
## Master's Thesis: Human - Waste

Plastics offer significant material benefits, such as durability and versatility, yet their
widespread use has led to severe environmental pollution and waste management
challenges. This thesis develops alternative concepts for collaborative participation in
recycling processes by examining existing waste management systems. Exploring the
historical and material context of plastics, it investigates the role of making and hacking as
transformative practices in waste revaluation. Drawing on theories from Discard Studies,
Material Ecocriticism, and Valuation Studies, it applies methods to examine human-waste
relationships and the shifting perception of objects between value and non-value. Practical
investigations, including workshop-based experiments with polymer identification and
machine-based interventions, provide hands-on insights into the material properties of
discarded plastics. These experiments reveal their epistemic potential, leading to the
introduction of novel archiving practices and knowledge structures that form an integrated
methodology for artistic research and practice. Inspired by the Materialstudien of the
Bauhaus Vorkurs, the workshop not only explores material engagement but also offers new
insights for educational science, advocating for peer-learning scenarios. Through these
approaches, this research fosters a socially transformative relationship with waste,
emphasizing participation, design, and speculative material reuse. Findings are evaluated
through participant feedback and workshop outcomes, contributing to a broader discussion
on waste as both a challenge and an opportunity for sustainable futures and a material
reality of the human experience.

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<div class="buttons centered">
  <a class="big colored external"
  href="https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6246-888X">My ORCID</a>
</div>

<div class="buttons centered">
  <a class="big colored external"
  href="https://pinry.petau.net">See the image archive yourself</a>
</div>

<div class="buttons centered">
  <a class="big colored external"
  href="https://archive.petau.net/#/graph">See the archive graph yourself</a>
</div>

<div class="buttons centered">
  <a class="big colored external"
  href="https://forgejo.petau.net/aron/machine_archivist.git">Find the complete Repo on Forgejo</a>
</div>

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