Appreciate and Re-value

I've been reading Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories – A collection of sustainable design essays, edited by Jonathon Chapman and Nick Gant (2007), and think some of the things Stuart Walker writes about in chapter 3, Design Redux, could be important to think about for my work...

Walker believes that not only do material possessions not bring happiness but also they are an impediment to happiness (p.58-59 and note 1). He believes we should appreciate what we already have and applauds designers who make use of existing products in new designs.

Walker believes by restoring or adapting old products:

 ‘…we show appreciation and demonstrate respect.’ p60.

Walker wants to find ways of appreciating products that still function but are no longer valued; that are old fashioned or slightly less technically advanced.

‘These products, which are perhaps 10-20 years old, have no deign cachet and therefore generally find their way into landfill.’ p.60.

Walker uses electronic/electrical goods as they become technically superseded quickly and cause a problem with disposal. The above statement could easily be applied to clothes (apart from the timeframe – which would be much less!) as I guess clothes are generally thrown out when they still function but are just 'out of fashion' – or faded etc. For this project I could reuse synthetic fabrics as they cause more problems at their end of life than natural fabrics, and so have a greater need to be reused.

SW has used a ‘frame’ to place his discarded objects in, in order to give them a new context and re-value them. He believes within this new frame ‘old’ or outdated qualities of the objects that may have been the reason they were initially discarded, actually become essential to the new whole. I think this is like worn vintage clothing, like a velvet jacket – if everything you wear looks old you might just look shabby, but if you wear an worn out jacket with a fresh bright dress it will be recontexualised and look ‘new’.

‘Products are associated with social standing and personal expression and so, as objects become old and shabby they are replaced. This re-presentation of objects within a specifically defined context offers one example of how older, perhaps deteriorated products, can be re-appreciated.’ p.67.

- I think this is like how like the quilts of Gee’s Bend were re-contextualised when they we displayed vertically in art galleries, rather than flat on beds. The ladies who made the quilts were also refered to as ‘artists’, whereas before they were a forgotten community.

Walker thinks it is better to design without the need to take the electrical products to pieces, as to do so would take time and resources (expensive) and would create waste. He explains that this relates to the first 2 (and what he terms the more important (p63)) of the 3 R’s – Reduce and Reuse.
 

- This makes sense, you can get most out of a product and create less waste by using it as it is – i.e. buying second hand clothes – this might work for fashion with vintage clothes which look unique and stylish. However, a lot of second hand clothes are not ‘fashionable’ or desirable and so need more attention and work to become desirable. Cutting up clothes to reuse the fabric - for patchwork, I think still falls under the heading of reuse, but obviously it takes more time and creates more waste than simply reusing the whole garment. It is possible to cut up the fabric and not create any waste – zero waste pattern cutting etc. If the fabric is mechanically or chemically recycled then it uses more energy, time and creates more waste than either reusing the whole product as it is, or reusing the materials of the product.

On the subject of (re)value, Walker states:

‘Walker and Chaplin (1997, pp165-166) have distinguishes several kinds of value that can be attributed to an artefact:

·         Artistic value – intrinsic excellence, aesthetic quality, significant content.

·         Use value – practical function irrespective of appearance and aesthetic attributes. (This can also include decorative, symbolic, memorial, ideological and political value.)

·         Sentimental value – private, biographical and emotional life of an individual.

·         Exchange value – monetary value is variable because of fluctuation in the market and the economy.’ p.69.

‘…ideological or even political value.’ p.70.

How can old discarded clothes achieve all 4 kinds of value? I wonder if clothes had more sentimental value in the first place, maybe that would out-weight the deterioration in appearance over time – maybe even the faded qualities would add value, showing the item is loved and used. I think artistic value relates to skill, time and craft rather than fashion – like Hader’s thoughts in her book about Amish quilts, 'Sunshine and Shadow', where she makes a distinction between ‘professionally’ (effeciently) ‘finely’ (carefully) worked stitches.

 SW explains that original value of the products he uses would have been usefullness and newness (fashion and innovation), as these attributes decrease over time the products lose their value. He claims he has restored value to the objects buy placing them in new compositions using his ‘frame’. He thinks that if the re-use of the product has sustainability at it’s core, it also gives it: