The Luthiers Drapaires are a group of creative recyclers of technological waste. Their work is the result of a process of research, recycling and reuse of waste. After collecting devices and materials from dumps, they remove the electronic, mechanical or constructive parts that can be used to create musical instruments and embark on a work process that includes prototyping circuits, designing mechanical systems and acoustic research. The Luthiers Drapaires are also an orchestra with instruments made of scanners, radios, televisions, metalwork, handheld mixers and strange artefacts. The instruments built during the workshops then become part of the Orchestra, which collects all types of recycled objects with creative possibilities. The Luthiers Drapaires prove that there is no need to enter into the dynamics of the market and consumerism to have electronic musical instruments, and that the waste that we generate is sufficient raw material to build sophisticated devices. The growing open hardware/Arduino community on the Internet gives everyone access to the knowledge needed to transform apparent junk into useful machines, with more and more people getting involved in the philosophies of DIY, recycling and downscaling.
96