'The First Rule of Kipple' Dan Tobin Smith for London Design Festival

Photographer, Dan Tobin Smith has a serious addiction, and it’s all down to the Kipple. He has covered his entire East London studio with ‘Kipple’. 200 square meters of useless, used up or pointless ‘stuff’, arranged in a chromatically themed way. It’s inspired, we’re told, by “the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the fictional concept of ‘Kipple’, as described by science fiction writer Philip K Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.”

After a plea for ‘Kipple’ over social media , it came pouring in thick & fast from all over the world, and was then painstakingly sorted into different color shades.

So when I received an invite to view ‘The Kipple’ it was more out if fascination than art appreciation that led me to Dan’s Haggerston studio this week.

It was standing room only at the launch, everyone gingerly trying not to stand on the ‘Kipple’. The Drink Factory made a delicious bespoke ‘Plastic Pop’ vodka & cream soda cocktail specially for the event , proving my hunch, that people will travel anywhere for a free drink, even if it’s literally to look at rubbish.

I found myself having a trip down memory lane, finding a number of Kipple items that had once too graced my own shelves, before being discarded for the latest must have item. The My Little Pony doll, An assortment of mobile phones, even spotted an cheeky vintage Playboy buried within the Kipple mountain.

The First Rule Kipple? Never talk about the Kipple of course, well worth a visit and on til the 21st September.