Pairing the importance of playing and Urban Cycling and connect it with the online marketplace Etsy to transform the urban landscape into a more joyful, playful and connective place.

1. Urban Upcycling
by Lennart Fleschhut
Academy of Art University

3. The moments of watching life pass by as I take pause are
now replaced by the need to plug in and socialize without
truly socializing.
I swipe, pinch and zoom, and scroll as if I’ve become a digital
conductor of sorts.
The light of my mobile screen is the calming I need to fall
asleep each night and the stimulus that starts each day. I’m
not alone in this statusphere.
I walk and check my screen. I struggle to not drive and check
my screen.
I excuse myself from conversations or meals to communicate
outside.
I’m losing my powers of analog observation and perspective
in favor of digital engagement.
-Brian Solis, Principal Analyst, Altimeter Group, Author of What’s the Future of Business (WTF)
http://linkd.in/PVMZ9h

5. Everyday you see people
checking out in the city on
their commute.
We live among each other,
not with each other.

6. X
Online marketplace Etsy, inspired by Street Artist Rotten Apple, will try
and disconnect people from the online world and connect people in their
everyday life to ......

7. .... make the urban environment a more
joyful, playful and connective platform.

8. Because
Playing relieves stress, improves brain function, stimulates
the mind and boosts creativity, improves relationships and
connection to others and keeps us to keep feeling young
and energetic.
http://www.helpguide.org/life/creative_play_fun_games.htm

9. And
Social Capital is the biggest predictor for health, happiness
and longevity.
http://bewell.stanford.edu/features/social-ties-good-health

10. The Movement:
Urban Upcycling

11. Design, if it is to be ecologically re-
sponsible and socially responsive,
must be revolutionary and radical in
the truest sense. It must dedicate
itself to... maximum diversity with
minimum inventory... or doing the
most with the least.
Victor Papanek
designer and educator, strong advocate of the
socially and ecologically responsible design of
products, tools, and community infrastructures.

12. Idea: provoke city dwellers
into thinking about how
urban infrastructure can be
repurposed for uses both
fun and imaginative.

13. Points of percussion
Positive Effects of
Interaction/Playing > Disconnection
Positively enhance the urban landscape

14. Etsy - Corporate Values
“Etsy is proud to be a certified
B Corporation — a new kind of
company that uses the power of
business to solve social and
environmental problems.”
“Etsy is a marketplace
where people around theworld
connect to buy and sell unique
goods. Our mission is to re-imagine
commerce in ways that build a
more fulfilling and lasting world.”

15. “They’re provocations, addresing the latency
in the urban environment.”
-Rotten Apple, Street Artist

16. Supporting Trend: Not Available on the App Store Sticker
Idea: Bring value of everyday things back into the foreground.
http://notonappstore.com/

17. Thank you for your attention
Lennart Fleschhut