Publication date: 3 July 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800085183
Number of illustrations: 67
Wastiary
A bestiary of waste
Michael Hennessy Picard (Editor), Albert Brenchat-Aguilar (Editor), Timothy Carroll (Editor), Jane Gilbert (Editor), Nicola Miller (Editor)
Wastiary, or Bestiary of Waste, is a creative exercise that occupies letters, numbers, and symbols of Western academic language to compose a list of 35 short entries on the uncomfortable but pressing topic of waste in the contemporary world. The collection is richly illustrated with artwork, photography, collage and mixed media.
The book is a heterodox compendium of ‘beasts of waste’, playfully re-imagining the medieval treatise on various kinds of animal. It conveys the message that various forms of waste and pollution have achieved a beast-like or untameable quality, at times pungently transferring to considerations of ‘the human’, or humans treated as waste.
Praise for Wastiary
‘Wastiary is a rich, stimulating and beautifully composed volume, not least courtesy of a very welcome emphasis on the visual. The comprehensiveness and variety of views, styles of writing, as much as disciplinary stances, and the embedded diversity of the book make for a recognisable intervention into waste/discard studies that can certainly capture the eye of the expert but also pique the appetite of the novice.’
Michele Acuto, University of Melbourne
List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Foreword by Clare Melhuish and Nicola Miller
Introduction by Michael Hennessy Picard, Albert Brenchat-Aguilar, Timothy Carroll & Jane Gilbert
| for Strips of paper, by Nina Mathijsen
A for Architecture of ruins, by Jonathan Hill
B for Bomb ecologies, by Leah Zani
C for Capitalism (plastic), by Amanda Boetzkes
D for Data waste, by Roxana Vatanparast and Elettra Bietti
E for Excrement, by Franziska Neumann
F for Fire, by Stamatis Zografos
G for Ground up, by Onya McClousand
H for Hairs, by Robyn Adams
I for Identity, by Caitlin DeSilvey
J for Junk bonds, by David Sim
K for Kinship (chemical), by Angeliki Balayannis
L for Land waste, by Sonia Freire Trigo
M for Microbes, by Elaine Cloutman-Green
N for Nalu, by Melissa McCarthy
Ñ for Ñiquiñaque/extraÑo, by Adriana Laura Massidda and Hanna Baumann
O for Outsourcing, by Matthijs de Bruijne
P for Problem, by Bruno Vindrola-Padrós and Ulrike Sommer
Q for Queer liveliness/Queer matter/Queer toxin, by Mel Y. Chen
R for Rubble, by Adam Przywara
S for Space junk, by Alice Gorman
T for Time and Tower; Grenfell, by José Torero Cullen
U for Underground, by Luke Bennett
V for Vastus, by Véra Ehrenstein
W for Wasteland, by Miranda Griffin
X for Xenophobia, by Huda Tayob
Y for Yawning and Yearning, by Tatiana Thieme
Z for Zero waste, by Pushpa Arabindoo
* for Corona shapes, by Albert Brenchat-Aguilar
1 for 1%, by Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos
2 for HS2, by Chia-Lin Chen
3 for From a 3rd World to included 3rds, by Lucy Bell
4&6 for 4th Industrial Revolution and 6th extinction by Everisto Benyera
5 for 5G, by Sy Taffel
7 for 7 dear things, by Maja and Reuben Fowkes
8 for Octopus, by Tina Beigi
9 for 9/11, by Michael Hennessy Picard
Epilogue, by Tamar Garb
Bibliography
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800085183
Number of illustrations: 67
Publication date: 03 July 2023
PDF ISBN: 9781800085183
EPUB ISBN: 9781800085213
Hardback ISBN: 9781800085206
Paperback ISBN: 9781800085190
Michael Hennessy Picard (Editor) 
Michael Hennessy Picard teaches International Waste Law at the Edinburgh Law School.
Albert Brenchat-Aguilar (Editor)
Albert Brenchat-Aguilar is Lecturer (teaching) at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.
Timothy Carroll (Editor)
Timothy Carroll is Principal Research Fellow in Anthropology at UCL.
Jane Gilbert (Editor)
Jane Gilbert is Professor of Medieval Literature and Critical Theory at UCL.
Nicola Miller (Editor)
Nicola Miller is Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies at UCL.
‘Wastiary is a rich, stimulating and beautifully composed volume, not least courtesy of a very welcome emphasis on the visual. The comprehensiveness and variety of views, styles of writing, as much as disciplinary stances, and the embedded diversity of the book make for a recognisable intervention into waste/discard studies that can certainly capture the eye of the expert but also pique the appetite of the novice.’ Michele Acuto, University of Melbourne, Australia
Related titles
An Introduction to Waste Management and Circular Economy
Stijn van Ewijk, Julia Stegemann,
05 December 2023
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