Brújula Volume 11 • 2017 Enfoques __________________________ Redefining Garbage in Contemporary Buenos Aires: The Imagination of Crisis and its Aesthetic Responses 1 Gisela Heffes * Rice University The phenomenon of waste, what we discard and what we simply call “trash,” “junk,” “leftovers,” and “crap,” is not defined by any inherent characteristics but by assigned and imposed categories. In Rubbish Theory (1979), British anthropologist Michael Thompson points out that objects designated as trash—whatever has been given a “death” certificate—can remain in this dormant state, deprived of time and value until they have the chance to be “discovered” and even transferred into a “durable” category which includes 1 An earlier presentation draft of this article was delivered at the Centre for Latin American Studies at The University of Cambridge (UK) on 30 January 2012, and an expanded version can be found in my book Políticas de la destrucción/Poéticas de la preservación. Apuntes para una lectura (eco)crítica del medio ambiente en América Latina (Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo, 2013). * Copyright Ó Gisela Heffes, 2017. Used with permission.