Platform21calls themselves a design platform (“curiously exploring”, “strangely optimistic”) but other people call them change agents, and that definitely describes them. Witness their latest project, Repair Manifesto. In eloquent, energizing statements, it expounds the coolness of repair. (Check out #5 and #7.) It has hit a nerve, racing through the internet like wildfire.
Read MoreRepair Essential: Bondic Liquid Plastic Welder
(Video link HERE) Does your headphone phone jack have a loose connection? Did the stem of your eyeglasses snap? Tired of trying to repair them with weak glue or duct tape? We said YES to all those questions and were thrilled to find Bondic, a liquid plastic that “welds” broken items. It fits right in with our…
Read Moregood life project’s creed, a manifesto for living
Good Life Project‘s Living Creed contains all sorts of bits to inspire your week. (Click on the image to embiggen. To keep it up on your screen, click here.) Our favorite principles from the list are at the heart of ‘improvised life’:
Read Morebruce mau’s incomplete manifesto for growth
Anne Johnson alerted us to the extraordinary ‘Incomplete Manifesto for Growth that legendary designer and visionary Bruce Mau wrote in 1998: 43 powerful principles and practices. We’ve bolded our favorites: Allow events to change you. You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you. You produce it. You…
Read Morepaolo goldstein on how repair can be a way into creativity
(Video link here.) Paulo Goldstein sees himself as a craftsman in his approach to repair. It seems to us, he has the viewpoint of an artist, and certainly his repairs reflect a rare sensibility. We found this short video incredibly illuminating, for the many levels of living he addresses. Here’s the gist, but there’s way…
Read Morekintsugi: the artful repair of damaged things
Our favorite column at the very cerebral blog Design Observer is John Foster’s Accidental Mysteries, compilations of photographs around a theme. This week’s post focuses on the Japanese tradition of kintsugi — the artful repairing of damaged objects, and illustrates the beauty of broken and repaired things. This 18th century carved wooden bowl being sold at David Bell antiques is being described…
Read Moreholstee’s inspiring video manifesto
(Video link here.) We LOVE manifestos – in fact have one of our own (click “about” in the right sidebar), so were delighted by the very cool, fun Holstee video manifesto to live your life by. Here’s a version you can put on your wall:
Read Morerepaired stuff as back-up resource
This old pair of headphones still worked but one stem had broken. Rather than toss them, we asked our friend and sometimes assistant Tara Mann if she would do a visually-pleasing repair. Which she did, using colored electrician’s tape. We keep these old phones as back-ups to our regular ones, and find ourselves pulling them out…
Read Moresugru inspires repairs and hacks
When the wooden knob came off our 50’s Danish tea kettle, we TRIED EVERYTHING we could think of make it stick tightly to its metal lid that would regularly got really hot. No longterm success. We finally put the kettle in the street hoping someone would find a use for it. We wish we’d known…
Read Moredental floss shoe repair (thinking on your feet!)
Charles McFarlane, a friend who is a student at the Rudolf Steiner school (and who provided the material for the great post on World War II improvisations recently), sent us this inspired improv he spotted at school. “…when a friend’s canvas shoes started to separate at the sole, he used dental floss to chain stitch…
Read Morelemon squeezer repair in honor of platform 21
When my trusty lemon squeezer broke, I toyed with the idea of buying a new one, but found that design collaborative Platform 21’s Repair Manifesto (blogged last summer) had lodged itself in my consciousness. “REPAIRING IS A CREATIVE CHALLENGE“…and “TO REPAIR IS TO DISCOVER” subtly resonated. There’s a way to fix this, I thought, as I wandered…
Read Moretom sachs on transparent design -> making and fixing
We’ve written before about Tom Sachs, an artist whose philosophy of making we really love. Sachs’ work, like the chair seen above, shows its seams, and doesn’t conform to the idea that a piece of art – or anything – is ever “finished.” We recently came across this quote from Sachs; his attitude about transparency…
Read Morethe fixer’s collective: improvisational mending + fixing
The Fixer’ Collective started last fall as workshop in a year-long exhibition called “Mend” at the Proteus Gowanus Gallery in Brooklyn. When the exhibition ended in June, the collective continued, meeting every Thursday evening at the gallery. It’s an adhoc community group with a simple premise: you bring broken objects to fix (or to get help fixing),…
Read MoreTricia Hersey’s Radical Nap Ministry: “Rest is Resistance”
During a particularly stressful and exhausting time in her life, Tricia Hersey had an epiphany: She started napping where ever she had a few moments. It was transformative and led her to research the idea of rest as a healing mechanism and form of resistance against societal oppression. It would become her ministry, and she The Nap Bishop.
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