Reduce, Re-use, Recycle

Ari Krupnik is proof that you can make anything out of anything.

Ari Krupnik is a software engineer in Silicon Valley, but he’s also an artist. We’ve reached a point where CDs and DVDs are old news and, essentially, junk. But Ari couldn’t get himself to throw away all the old ROMs: “I have good experience using CNC machines for artwork and to make parts for my airplanes. I want to translate this experience into a process for cutting old CDs into new, useful things. I take a stack of CDs and make a clock out of them, hands and all. I hang it above my desk to remind me when’s a good time to work on this project.” He’s also created his own Spirographs in another effort to recycle old technology. He even lets you name the price to purchase this stuff! Niiiiiice.

Ari’s “Pixel Mosaics” collection features portraits made from dice, bullet casings and M & Ms (check out Uma Thurman in M & M form in the gallery). His dice mosaics use anywhere between a couple hundred and a couple thousand die. The Eric S. Raymond (2008) mosaic consists of around seven thousand .40 brass casings and weights 40 pounds.