New York artists Joo Youn Paek and David Jimison have created a metal recyclables bin which spits out garbage.
Housed inside the bin is an elevated platform which uses magnets and scales to decide if the rubbish is metal or non-metal.
If the waste is not metal, its spewed back onto the street. This takes a few seconds to happen...thus the person who tossed the rubbish has probably gone.
This means things like old pies, sandwiches, plastics, glass and dirty tissues pile up next to the bin and blow about the street. This is the art part of the bin.
The bins were designed to demonstrate the unfortunate failures of technological improvements; especially when there is little or no discussion about the good and bad aspects of design.
Paek and Jimison decided to use rubbish bins, street signs and park benches to illustrate this failure.These three public services are everyday objects. They're also pretty dull and normally not the focus of public curiosity.
The artists were asked to create the bins for the Toward the Sentient City exhibition organised by the Architectural League of New York.
Exhibition curator Mark Shepherd wanted to show art works which demonstrated the relationship between technology, architecture and urban space.