Conference Paper: No Wasted Material

Dana Mount and Ehryn Torrell have initiated a creative/academic collaboration that aims to contribute to the growing field of Garbology, or Discard Studies. Their talk will weave together academic research, creative writing and visual imagery. They will provide both an analysis of waste in contemporary society and a view into the productive nature of collaboration. They will present a snapshot of creative and theoretical responses to our garbage crisis from a positive, productive perspective. They see garbage as an important thinking and imagining tool. Waste and excess may have led us to a global environmental crisis, but like Norway, where garbage is now imported to produce energy, it may also be the key to thinking our way back out.

Mount will present her research in postcolonial studies and ecocriticism. She will discuss the priviledge of living garbage free and other cultural perceptions of trash. Her research aims to broaden the scope of garbage discourse through an analysis of alternative narratives, such as the illustrated children's book "Trash! On Ragpicker Children and Recycling." This book offers a postcolonial response that operates from the perspective of living off and amongst garbage. Ehryn Torrell will build on the image of a waste-filled landscape by reading her creative fiction. Her story will weave in and out of Mount's research, describing an explorer's travels through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.