Miniature robots made from waste electronic chips and wires

Singapore and Malaysia-based industrial designer Anthony Oh recycles electric parts into miniature robot sculptures.

Anthony Oh is an industrial designer based in Singapore and Malaysia. While working in a technology company designing personal entertainment devices and computer peripherals, Oh started creating these tiny upcycled robot sculptures from pieces of waste electronics.

“While projects were in the pre-manufacture stage we received a lot of sample parts of plastic, metals and electronics for quality checks. There were lots of rejects that went into trash,” explains Oh.

“I find these mechanically-designed parts are intriguing and beautiful, especially when they are dismantled into smaller parts (for example, an electrical component be made up of 10 to 30 pieces of parts assembled together). These little pieces are unusual to many people: only the designers know them and understand why they are the way they are."

Each of his micro-bots has their own character and detail, inspired partly by a desire to raise awareness on the wasteful excess of modern life.

“I've been working as an industrial designer for many years, designing and producing products, and I wish to stop this 'production'. There are many repetitive, short life cycle products (like mobile phones and mobile accessories) in our lives, and we are as good or even better without them. If we understand the process of production, we could see how it impacts the earth and our lives.”

Oh no longer works for the electronics company: he now works in a design company that specialises in heath and wellbeing projects.