USELESS ARMOR is a performance art costume made over the course of a year from over 20,000 recycled pop tabs and wire. USELESS ARMOR is an oxymoron; armor is an inherently useful garment that protects life and can facilitate the ‘protection’ of a nation or empire. But the armor I have made is useless for various reasons: it is a heavy, long dress, which would be dysfunctional in battle; it is made out of ‘useless’ discarded soda can tabs; and in the process of making it, I became more ‘useless’ by spending hours of my life bending, cutting, and assembling it. USELESS ARMOR allowed me to internalize long term, intentional, and unglamorous development, a counter gesture to the aggressive, constant, never-ending obsession with growth to the detriment of ourselves and the planet. Thus, I view the process of making the dress through the lens of activism and performance.