OHD_BLG_0048 The right to repair 🛠

The right to repair is important and connected to my work because like many things in the world it has to do with maintenance. I had a chat with O Hemstock from Northumbria University about slow design and he brought up that maintenance is about agency. It is about the right to repair and the power you have over the objects that make up your life. Having agency means that you can fix it when it is broken, you don’t need to rely on others to fix it for you and you are not forced to buy another. But it is also about the ability to customised and edit and make the object fit to your needs instead of the other way round. It is important to think about maintenance not only because of the planet but because of the effect objects have on people’s lives. For example you want a pan to be good but what if the person burns something in the pan, which they are likely to do because they are human. What do you as the producer of the pan do then? Sure technically the ownership of the pan has moved from one to another but what can you do to help the new owner with maintenance of the pan. Handy youtube videos on how to clean your pan or a cleaning service for example. Now I am aware that the pan scenerio is a bit of an odd one but thinking about maintenance is always a good thought exercise in design.