Repair and Broken World Thinking
beware ... collaboration
Plan
W1 Day 1 / 21.01
09:00 am Meet and greet
Introducion
Disnovation, innovation, improvisation
11:00 am An......a day keeps the doctor away
SPOON
W1 Day 2 / 22.01
09:00 am Meet and greet
collective listening to: Science historian Simon Werrett about Thrifty Science, which discusses historical practices of repair and reuse.
break, discussion
Collective reading of the "Rethinking Repair" by Steven Jackson
File:Jackson RethinkingRepair.pdf
A very short history of trash
Pointers:
- Waste management is related to population density: more people = more waste -> as such: it is a problem relating to the modern era, closely connected to industrialization
- In early history waste was usually discarded in lakes, holes in the grounds or burned.
- The first well known example of large scale waste pollution was London with Corbyn Morris, a London official already saying that "...as the preservation of the health of the people is of great importance, it is proposed that the cleaning of this city, should be put under one uniform public management, and all the filth be...conveyed by the Thames to proper distance in the country". The first occurrence of organised solid waste management system appeared in London in the late 18th century.
- Coinciding with this relocation of waste to landfills, we also see the first recycling: dust-yards selling coal-ash, and the rag-and-bone-men.
- In the mid-19th century, spurred by increasingly devastating cholera outbreaks and the emergence of a public health debate that the first consolidated legislation on the issue emerged. The Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act of 1846 began what was to be a steadily evolving process of the provision of regulated waste management in London. The Metropolitan Board of Works was the first citywide authority that centralized sanitation regulation for the rapidly expanding city and the Public Health Act 1875 made it compulsory for every household to deposit their weekly waste in 'movable receptacles' for disposal - the first concept for a dust-bin. These were collected by removal cars. Similar systems pop up in other cities around the world.
- The dramatic increase in waste for disposal led to the creation of the first incineration plants, or, as they were then called, 'destructors'. In 1874, the first incinerator was built in Nottingham by Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. to the design of Alfred Fryer. The first waste disposal machine!
- Little has changed since 1875; trash is still collected by city initiatives and either destroyed/dumped/recycled. The only change is the scale on which it takes place. MORE trash is burned in BIGGER incinerators/dumped at location even MORE remote/sold through MORE recycling initiatives for MORE money.
- Although consumer electronics such as the television have been popular since the 1920s, recycling of them was almost unheard of until early 1991. The first electronic waste recycling scheme was implemented in Switzerland, beginning with collection of old refrigerators but gradually expanding to cover all devices.
- As of 2014, the European Union had about 50% of world share of the waste and recycling industries, with over 60,000 companies employing 500,000 persons, with a turnover of €24 billion. Countries have to reach recycling rates of at least 50%, while the lead countries were around 65% and the EU average was 39% as of 2013. The EU average rises steadily, to 45% in 2015.
- In 2018, changes in the recycling market have sparked a global "crisis" in the industry. On December 31, 2017, China announced its "National Sword" policy, setting new standards for imports of recyclable material and banning materials that were deemed too "dirty" or "hazardous". The new policy caused drastic disruptions in the global market in recycling and reduced the prices of scrap plastic and low-grade paper. Exports of recyclable materials from G7 countries to China dropped dramatically, with many exports shifting to countries in southeast Asia.
W1 Day 3 / 23.01
09:00 am Meet and greet
Guest: Joanna van der Zanden
Joanna van der Zanden works as an independent curator with a focus on socially engaged arts and design projects and participatory practices. She has gained a lot of experience in cultural formats where the public at large gets involved in the process of research, questioning and/or making. It is her view that contemporary cultural institutions should – at the best – function as catalysts to stimulate critical and creative thinking and making. Especially in times of paradigm shift, we need to re-educate each other and find new common grounds. Therefore we need open spaces for experimentation and reflection.
worksession: "repair rituals"
W1 Day 4 / 24.01
09:00 am Meet and greet
Critical Making
Guest: Shailoh Phillips---> who is a polymash media artist / researcher / educator.
Critical making is less about the aesthetics of the end product and more about the process and conceptual exploration. It is the inquiry that matters and not the final solution. Through making you get a better understanding of how various technologies function. Critical Making gives birth to curiosity. While making, you question several aspects of the process, explore various directions formulating your own opinion on what works or does not work and why.
The main focus of critical making is open design. Open design develops a critical perspective on the current institutions, practices and norms of society, and reconnects materiality and morality. Matt Ratto introduces Critical Making as processes of material and conceptual exploration and creation of novel understandings by the makers themselves. Critical Making includes digital software and hardware. Software usually refers to the Raspberry Pi or Arduino, hardware refers to a computer, or any other device that facilitates an operation.
REFERENCES:
Read selections from the Critical Making Zine
* Interview Garnet Hertz and Matt Ratto
W1 Day 5 / 25.01
09:00 am Greet and meet and then
The world’s key problems won’t be fixed by simply adding 3D printing,opensource and the Arduino. But how to add them...seriously
W2 Day 6 / 28.01
09:00 am Greet and meet caffeine
Tools for anything crashcourse
W2 Day 7 / 29.01
09:00 am Greet and meet caffeine and hopefully tea and cookies
Look into and discuss practices of improvised solutions in contexts of limited resources Rikimbili in Cuba (the documentation work of Ernesto Oroza), Gambiara in Brazil ( the practice and writing of Felipe Fonseca), Jugaad in India (hopefully with the blessing and mentoring of Siddhi and Anushree), Halletmek in Turkey and the practice of repair Kintsugi in Japan
W2 Day 8 / 30.01
working on the assignment
W2 Day 9 / 31.01
working on the assignment
W2 Day 10 / 01.02
Brunch and presentations
Assignments
An ..... a day keeps the doctor away
Individual exercise
Every day, we will make a specific object for a maximum of one hour.
This daily exercise aims to train us in the practices of reuse, re-purpose and improvisation.
day 1: a spoon
The never ending life of things
Group exercise (maximum 3 people per group)
Usefulness
A tool when in doubt
Oblique Strategies (subtitled Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas) is a card-based method for promoting creativity jointly created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, first published in 1975.
Monthly Restart Radio Podcasts on topics like repair and throw-away culture
Technological Disobedience by artist Ernesto Oroza