Benjamin Fairfield has made it his mission to give a voice to empty cans, boba straws, and discarded shingles — he turns trash into musical instruments.
Fairfield is a lecturer at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the author of a new book: “Kani Ka ʻŌpala: How Can Garbage Sing?”
He was also recently named one of Hawaiʻi’s Climate Artists in Residence, and a new exhibit showcasing his work will open this weekend at Capitol Modern in Honolulu.
Fairfield spoke with The Conversation about his unconventional path, and creating instruments out of what others might consider trash.
While volunteering with the Peace Corps in Thailand, Fairfield was introduced to the tünak, a harp instrument indigenous to the Karen people of Northern Thailand.
“If you look at it, the strings are untwisted bike brake cables,” he said. “The membrane is like a gas or galvanized metal container, and it's kind of emblematic of these technologies that were thrust upon this Indigenous population in Northern Thailand. All the development projects have broken down, but they sort of strip it for parts and use what they can and incorporate into their musical tradition.”
“As part of my postdoc work at UH, I wanted to create an ensemble that sort of celebrated that with a lens on sustainability and eco-musicology, that connects people to place and gets them thinking about materials and sustainability, and how we interact with nature through music.”
Fairfield’s Thai ensemble is offered at UH Mānoa, where students make new instruments weekly from rubbish they collect and gather. He found that he had a growing collection of musical instruments, so he decided to record an album with them and later write his book.
“The book started during COVID. My son and I, he had no school, and we were just at Ala Moana Beach every day for 90 days straight,” Fairfield said. "Every time we went, I wouldn't bring any toys or anything, and we'd always find stuff that either washed up or was unearthed from the sand, things just kept appearing everywhere, all these different plastic toys. And I was thinking, what if I turned all these into musical instruments, like a whole flotsam exhibit or something, and that became the setting for the book, which is set at Magic Island.”
Fairfield told HPR that the father and daughter in the book discuss whether the items they find are really worthless, and the second half of the book includes tutorials about turning ʻōpala into instruments at home.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 2, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
