Street Use – “The street finds its own uses for things.”

This post is about design in the broadest sense, as a process of problem-solving that leads to interesting and strangely compelling solutions. Above is an improvised streetcleaner in China found on Street Use, a truly fascinating blog about DIY and general inventiveness. In the words of its creator Kevin Kelly:

This site features the ways in which people modify and re-create technology. Herein a collection of personal modifications, folk innovations, street customization, ad hoc alterations, wear-patterns, home-made versions and indigenous ingenuity. In short — stuff as it is actually used, and not how its creators planned on it being used. As William Gibson said, “The street finds its own uses for things.” 

 Payphone on Lake Victoria in Uganda using GSM technology and solar power; ox used to move truck cab; military frying eggs in shovel blades.

There is something both inspiring and moving about this kind of do-it-yourself. Necessity is the mother of a beautiful, dreamlike surrealism, not merely invention.