The Buddhist Studies Institute at the University of Copenhagen assembled scholars from a range of disciplines to discuss the relationship between value and waste. Links to conference and to abstracts. Snapshots from some of the presentations :
- a capsule of deteriorating clutter stored under a dome in a museum
- A Zero Waste Promise artwork with imprints of a Chinese village’s residents’ hands displayed in the town hall
- Symbolic value of the ash residues stuck in the cracks of a cremation chamber
- Creative industries trying to employ the rubbish amassed along the beaches of Christmas Island
- A separate (parallel) system for managing menstrual waste in Nepal
I presented my findings about disposing of anatomical specimens at waste incinerators. The presentation heavily relied on drawings depicting the speciality and physicality of burning the cadavéreux parts. My presentation identified how the human remains constitute a differentiated and uncomfortable type of rubbish, processed separately yet apart from the other waste categories.
Following the conference the organisers and some of the presenters (including myself) agreed to collaboratively submit our papers for a special issue at a waste journal.
no.balsa 