The world is filled with things made for a specific purpose. When their purpose has been fulfilled, or their valued properties diminish, there is often some material remainder. Our projects attempt to extract or exploit that history,

-as a celebration of the human and biological labor embedded in materials,
-as a means of investigating the complex relationships between humans and things, objects and images, representations and their referents,
-as an inquiry into the various forms of being,
-as an elaboration of the western interest in found materials from Duchamp's experiments with ready-mades to driftwood figurines, from Rauschenberg's combines to the phenomenon of the Antiques Road Show, from ethnographic artifacts to religious reliquaries,
-as a symbolic or tactical intervention in the waste stream,
-as an antidote to expansionist economics,
-as alternately apocalyptic and utopian

Our work can be divided into three general areas of activity:

1. External Design in which we serve as mentors, consultants, guides, teachers to students engaged in reuse projects.

2. Direct Exchange is a project in which we facilitate or broker the exchange of used merchandise, through our affiliation with the Resource Center of Chicago 501(c). This project is designed to be both a re-use initiative and a funding source for Material Exchange.

3. Internal Design describes projects conceived of and created by members of the group. These include:
-designed objects or interventions, either commissioned or speculative, for a resale or art audience
-installations
-and games

Material Exchange is currently working under the collaborative input of artists: Sara Black, Alta Buden, Charles McGhee Hassrick, John Preus, and David Wolf. The projects of Material Exchange have been exhibited at the Smart Museum of Art, The Experimental Station, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Betty Rymer Gallery, Gallery 400, and The Hyde Park Art Center, and others. Other projects include collaborative workshops or courses with art and design students at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Harrington College of Design, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Street Level Youth Media.