Things by Ewerb

Things. Elisa Werbler

Things.

Elisa Werbler

ÂŠ Copyright 2015 by Elisa Werbler All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the author. For inquiries, contact elisa@elisawerbler.com School of Visual Arts MFA Products of Design 136 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011-3213 productsofdesign.sva.edu

serif typeset in Century Schoolbook sans-serif typeset in Value by Benjamin Critton Printed by Blurb

Elisa Werbler Author and Designer

Allan Chochinov Chair, MFA Products of Design Thesis Advisor

Andrew Schloss Thesis I Advisor

Abby Covert Thesis II Advisor

Lex Berko Editor

Contents

Introduction

Things We Don’t Need

How This Thesis Came To Be

Audience

The Thing You Are Reading

We All Have Things

Let’s Talk About Things

Opportunities

Goals & Objectives

What Happens To Your...

Why What

Things Early On

How

Initial Ideas & Prototypes

Branded Objects

Previous Work

The Things That Came Before

Developed Things

Blank Slate

Final Offerings

What’s Mine Is Yours

Futuring & Speculation

113

Chain-Of-Custody

Research Exploring Things

Lossless Trappings

Stories About Things Sociology & Things

Future Things

The Psychology of Things

Looking Forward

173

Things On Planet Earth Digital Things

More Things

Things To Keep

Lexicon

The Professionals

Select Bibliography

How Did We Get Here?

Thanks.

177

Chapter 1

Introduction Let’s Talk About Things

relationships with others, the things we consume, the things we share,

We live in a world of things. Thou-

and the things we can’t bear to

sands of things surround us every-

part with.

day, and we interact with only a fraction of them on a regular basis. Some

Let me start by defining the word

of these items are functional and

“things.” I have defined things for the

help us to complete our daily tasks.

purpose of this thesis as the personal

Some of them act only as a physi-

artifacts accumulated over the course

cal reminder of a certain place and

of someone’s life. Here are some

time. These things are inanimate

words that can all be considered

and unable to express emotion, and

things: stuff, objects, possessions,

yet, they have the powerful ability to

items, collectibles, goods, effects, ar-

recount stories, create interactions,

tifacts, belongings, mementos, trap-

and even build identities.

pings, and so on. Things can mean anything, a challenge this thesis has

This thesis explores how we ascribe

embraced with open arms.

value to our everyday things. It examines the things we cherish from our pasts, the things that signify our

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.â&#x20AC;? William Morris

How This Thesis Came To Be

and feel, and I began to cultivate the idea that the things you keep are the things you care about, and a reflec-

As a child, my favorite hobby was

tion of who you are as a person.

painting, a skill that I continued to refine through my teens and one that

I like things. I like experiencing

eventually landed me in art school.

things with all of my senses, and

I studied furniture design, which I

sharing those experiences with oth-

found to be incredibly rewarding. I

ers. I enjoy collecting things that

designed things for people to interact

remind me of a certain time and

with on a personal level, often within

place. I also like new things, things I

the home. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve always had an interest

find beautiful or useful or that I sim-

in the way things look, work,

ply want. But there is a disconnect

Introduction

between my feelings towards these

decided to further my education, and

things, and how I experience them.

broaden my professional experience.

The things that I have keep accumulating. They get pushed deeper into

My entire life I’ve been surrounded

a drawer or a closet, or even worse,

by people that care deeply about

into the storage basement of my par-

their things, as well as people that

ents’ house. Whenever I purchased

don’t. I come from a family of Ho-

something new, the imbalance be-

locaust survivors who came to the

came even greater. Turns out I’m not

United States with almost no person-

the only one with this problem—as a

al possessions. Their most valuable

society, we have too many things.

things were photographs of those they had lost in the war. They were

Between 2010 and 2014 I designed

determined to establish their lives

and executed window and inte-

here, and had to make it count. My

rior displays for Anthropologie, the

grandmother was an avid antiques

women’s clothing, home, and acces-

collector. I would say that much of

sories store that is the epitome of

what she collected didn’t intrinsically

a “lifestyle brand.” Unlike many

bring her joy. However, the fact that

other companies that box and ship

she was able to collect it, and call it

ready-made displays from their

her own, made it valuable.

headquarters to each store, my colleagues and I made every tiny detail

My interests lay in the ability of our

by hand. After a while, I started to

things to act as a representation of

feel as though I was contributing in

who we are. The goal of this work is

large part to people being duped by

to uncover how those things affect

paper flowers and wooden chevrons.

our emotional states and to define

I felt as though people were merely

what it is that we consider valuable.

buying into the atmosphere that I

Our things can often manifest them-

had helped to perpetuate and not

selves as clutter, both physically and

the products themselves. This was

mentally. This thesis aims to help

the beginning of my questioning the

people uncover what is truly worth

things that I bring into this world

keeping by letting go of the things

and how they affect people. It is

that are not.

also, in large part, the reason why I

Things

The Thing You Are Reading

In this thesis, I’m not only challenging myself—I’m challenging the role of the designer. I’m a designer and designers make things. If there

This book is a document that encap-

is one thing that I struggled with

sulates a year’s worth of research-

the most over the course of the past

ing things. It illustrates my design

two years it would be in making

offerings and the process it took to

things, which is usually a strength

get there. This book is not a scholarly

of mine. For better or for worse, I

dissertation. It is a compilation of the

have become hyper-aware of what

journey I took to from the very begin-

I’m making, almost to the point of

ning of this thesis, until the time this

paralysis. A designer advocating for

was printed.

less things is a strange position to be in, as designers are by definition in

If you read this from cover to cover,

the business of creating more stuff.

you will see a significant amount of research, throughout the entire process. Rather than present one final offering as the culmination of this process, you will come across several design interventions including a service, a mobile application, a series of physical products, and many other successes and failures along the way. By filtering one idea through many forms, what I present to you is a body of work: Each individual offering can stand alone, but as a united front, they strengthen one another.

1 A lifestyle brand is a brand that tries to represent the interests, and opinions of a specific group or a culture as a means to directly target a specific audience.

Introduction

Chapter 2

Goals and Objectives Why

change, both personally and globally. If the demand for new things decreases, so will the production of

The way in which people determine

those things. The primary question

the value of their objects contributes

is: If we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know what we have,

to the way they consume. These

is it possible to know what we want

processes are completely subjective.

and what we need?

Everyone has his or her own understanding of what makes something

What

valuable. Western culture, fueled by mass production and consumerism, has

This thesis attempts to achieve sev-

distorted our perception of value.

eral goals. The first goal is personal.

The ability to consume effortlessly

I am my own audience. I am hoping

has fostered a culture of overcon-

to leave this experience with a new

sumption. My belief is that we need

frame of mind, and the tools to make

to become more aware of what we

a significant mental shift in how I re-

consider valuable and necessary. If

late to my stuff, by recognizing what

we do so, we can make significant

is actually meaningful, valuable, and

Things

worth having. I’ve already seen the

able to accurately identify our wants

effects of this work on my personal

and needs, rather than continually

life and it is starting to spread to

purchasing in the hopes of

those around me. I have become very

achieving satisfaction.

cautious of what I will allow into my life. Instead of thinking, “Will this

How

satisfy me in this moment?” I have started to approach purchases with the question, “Will I want this in my life forever?” This past holiday

There are many components that

season, I declared that I would not

make up this thesis, each offering a

accept any tangible gifts. While it

different perspective. As previously

seemed harsh and ungrateful at the

mentioned, the final offerings include

time, and was met with some resis-

a service, an experience, a series of

tance, the outcome was a pleasant

speculative objects, a mobile appli-

one. I didn’t have to pretend to like

cation, and a video. I have engaged

a rhinestone-encrusted jewelry box,

with many potential users (more on

before retiring it to the bottom of my

this later), to test the efficacy and

sock drawer or something equivalent

strength of each design offering.

for the the first time in a long time. This was done through a series of inThe ultimate goal of this thesis is to

terviews, conversations, workshops,

be a catalyst for large-scale systemic

and user testing in situ. I looked for

change. If it is possible to change

feedback on ways to strengthen each

the mind-set of just one individual,

concept as well as combat assump-

it is possible to reach many. As a

tions that I personally had going in

culture, we should shift our priorities

to each project. It was important to

from consuming more things more

me that I was able to pivot or re-

frequently to consuming fewer things

route each concept as the feedback

less often. In doing so, we can lower

was returned and the data gathered.

the demand for the production of these things in the first place. We

One of the recurring questions that

can avoid unnecessary purchases

surfaced throughout this thesis was:

that lead to clutter. We need to be

Does the effort and energy that it

Goals & Objectives

takes to have a particular thing

your personal space, you can see

equate to the amount of joy, happi-

the benefits of not being cluttered

ness, and pleasure that it

by those things. Lack of proximity

brings you?

causes the pain of parting with these objects to decrease and even vanish.

Trying to define the value of something by unpacking its meaning is

My work was to create a set of tools

difficult. Assigning value to a thing

to help people determine the value

isn’t as simple as conducting market

of their things from both a qualita-

research and putting a price tag on

tive and quantitative perspective. In

it. In essence, I was trying to solve

doing so, this thesis aims to empower

something that cannot be solved.

people as agents of their own lives.

I narrowed my focus to a single

It encourages them to become more

moment, the moment when a thing

aware of their surroundings, and to

becomes worthy of having or not

foster more valuable interactions

having. I focused on design interven-

with others, rather than spending

tions to change the outcome of that

their energy on things.

particular interaction between human and thing in order to determine whether or not something is worth keeping. Rather than focusing on what goes, it’s important to highlight what stays. There are two research-based hypotheses at the crux of this thesis. The first is that we need to become more in-tune with the things we already have. In doing so, we can better filter what we allow to enter into our lives in the future. The second is that it is easier to let go 2

of something if you don’t remember it’s there.3 By removing things from

Lubin, Gus. There’s a Staggering Conspiracy Behind The Rise of Consumer Culture.

3 See Hulda and Josh Klein in section—Things To Keep.

Chapter 3

Previous Work

The Things That Came Before

I have long been fascinated with the ability of an inanimate object to hold meaning. The following are a few examples of past work that shares this inspiration.

Things

Blank Slate

I introduced the idea of recordkeeping to an object that we know to be practical, functional, and great at doing its job: a tape measure. What started with the disposal of a piece of masking tape evolved into a design project wherein a physical objectâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; the tape measureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;became a living journal of measurements, memories, and process. This concept was born by taking an existing tape measure and covering the surface with a piece of masking tape. This marriage of materials created an opportunity to add an element of permanence and storytelling in regards to physical distance over a period of time. The final artifact was a hand crafted tape measure, constructed out of high-end materials like wood and brass. The tape itself was left completely blank. The intended use of the object was left entirely to the user. It mimicked a precious object that might live on through generations as would a photo album or video.

Previous Work

Things

Previous Work

as gifts. By turning these objects

What’s Mine Is Yours

into stickers, the things that they represent are given a new life. Users are encouraged to compose their own

I made a series of seven unique

narratives around the objects.

books titled “What’s Mine is Yours.” Each is part sticker book, part

The inspiration for this project came

workbook and gets its title from a

from the scratch-‘n-sniff sticker col-

set of vintage scratch-’n-sniff stick-

lection4 itself and my previous work

ers. Book titles include Bubblegum,

Blank Slate. Scent is said to be the

Cherries, Chocolate, Limes, Peaches,

strongest sense tied to memory. The

Pickles, and Root Beer. Each sticker

inclusion of scent is designed to trig-

book is composed of seven color-

ger childhood memories.

coded sheets of stickers, which are made up of my things. They are all identical except for the original sheet of scratch-n-sniff stickers inserted into each one, which determines the name of that particular book. The workbook is a place for people to compose narratives around this collection of things. It is a booklet of blank pages, each with a different colored background, and a space provided to write what is happening in the scenario if one wishes to do so. The collection of stickers is a document of objects of sentimental value that belong to me. These things were acquired through relatives, pur-

4 I returned to my parents’ home to find these stickers. They were just where I had left them, in a Ziploc bag. The combination of all of the scents combined was not pleasant.

chased at flea markets, and obtained

Things

Previous Work

Things

Previous Work

Chapter 4

Research Exploring Things

followed by uncovering the psychological means through which we create attachment to things. This

This thesis did not begin in the sum-

deep-dive led me to narrow my focus

mer of 2014. It began much earlier

to understanding the social and

and was explored unconsciously

cultural ramifications of peoples’ at-

through my observations and experi-

tachment to things.

ences. I’ve always had an affinity for things. I was raised to believe that

My research started with narrative

objects do in fact hold significance

accounts of peoples’ relationships to

and meaning.

things. It also included ethnographic research into how culture and society

Things have the ability to connect us

relate to personal objects. Addition-

to one another in ways that perhaps

ally, I conducted many interviews

cannot be communicated other-

with industry experts. This chapter

wise. The research you are about

illustrates the broad range of topics I

to encounter is an evolution of my

explored during the course of

thoughts on the topic. It started by

my work.

pinpointing an interest in this vast and completely subjective topic,

Things

Stories About Things

value of items was determined and how that was manipulated through various channels.

One of the major inspirations for this thesis came from Rob Walker

I spoke with Rob Walker6 about his

and Joshua Glenn’s book Significant

book and his take on our emotional

Objects. Through an expertly crafted

attachment to things. “I’m surround-

social experiment, the authors were

ed by a roomful of ‘gift albatrosses’,

able to prove the power of storytell-

things that I have no use for and ac-

ing as an indicator of value.

tually don’t like, but I can’t get rid of

because of who gave them to me,” he The experiment started with a series

said. “That’s an interesting thought,

of cheap thrift store items that were

gift as guilt.”

each given to a different author enlisted by Walker and Glenn. Each

I found this to be a valuable insight

author crafted a fictional narra-

and a distinct turning point in my

tive around their given object. The

thesis. My thoughts up until this

objects were then placed on eBay

point were that objects have the abil-

accompanied by their stories, which

ity to connect people to each other.

were fully disclosed as fiction. The

They can convey emotion and provide

total value of all the items purchased

us with a level of fulfillment that

amounted to almost 30 times their

perhaps nothing else can.

original purchase price at the end of What I hadn’t been able to put my

the experiment.

finger on was that the things around The book illustrates that we often

us could actually plague us, because

find the meaning of an object to be

we cannot bear to part with them.

as valuable, if not more so, than its

The emotional weight of these things

market value. This was evident in

is matched by their physical pres-

the difference between each ob-

ence. Clutter that accumulates over

ject’s initial purchase price and the

time because of our inability to let go

amount it sold for in the end, once

is a significant cause of anxiety and

the fictional story had been attribut-

mental burden.

ed to it. I was fascinated by how the

Research

Things

Rob Walker, co-author of Significant Objects

Christian Svanes Kolding, creator of The Things We Keep

Research

The physicality of an object and the use of senses to experience it can be powerful in triggering memory. I spoke with Christian Svanes Kolding,7 an artist, designer and filmmaker, about The Things We Keep, a film he created for the MoMA exhibit Talk To Me. The film is simple: The camera scrolls across a desktop full of his possessions and Kolding describes each thing as it passes along the screen. He told me that the making of the film, and the filmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s permanence as an object, allowed him to distance himself from the things within the film. Because there is a record of each objectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s significance, he can hold on to an associated memory without holding on to the thing itself. From our conversation, I gathered the following insights. The first is that an image or record of an object can be sufficient in holding on to its memory. The second is that we are constantly searching for meaning in things even if no meaning exists. These two theories became important building blocks of my thesis.

Things: Research

“When someone invests psychic energy in an object — a thing, another person, or an idea — that object becomes ‘charged’ with the energy of that agent.” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Research

Sociology & Things

result. Grandparents contribute to possessions in no small way. Here comes Christmas, here come the

Anthropologists have a term for

birthdays. The inflow of objects is

the way in which society interacts

relentless. The outflow is not.”10

with and produce things: “Material Culture.” The idea of Material

Going back to earlier points made

Culture has existed for many thou-

on gift giving, our emotional attach-

sands of years, but it did not become

ments are rarely about ourselves

a recognized area of study in the

exclusively, but about the people we

United States until the 1960s. The

share them with.

rise of Material Culture as an area of scholarly pursuit was due in part

An earlier ethnographic study in

to the shift in our societies’ means of

1981 drew related conclusions. Mih-

consuming goods.

aly Csikszentmihalyi, a world leader in positive psychology and social sci-

In a book called Life at Home in the

ence, examined a small demographic

21st Century, a group of anthropol-

of median income homeowners in a

ogists documented their attempt to

suburb of Chicago. In his book The

uncover the truths about our mate-

Meaning of Things: Domestic Sym-

rial culture in real time from 2001 to

bols and the Self,11 he explores which

2005. They visited 32 families across

household items those homeowners

America and carefully observed

valued most. The biggest distinction

them as they went about their nor-

he uncovered related to function:

mal days. The anthropologists part-

something useful, versus something

nered with clinical psychologists in

that has no function other than to be

order to test stress-levels associated

enjoyed or to evoke emotion.

with each family’s things. One of the anthropologists and authors of the

Pamela Drukerman, a contributing

book, Anthony P. Graesch writes,

writer for the New York Times,12

“We go to work, we come home, and

wrote about the recent heightened

there is only four hours of time we

awareness that Americans are hav-

spend together. We feel guilty about

ing towards their clutter. Drukerman

this, and oftentimes buy gifts as a

consulted with Karen Kingston, a

Things

Research

British clutter expert who said that,

debt. That in giving something to

unwanted heirlooms are amongst

another, whether a necklace, or one’s

the most frequent items people can’t

sister as a wife, a bond is created be-

let go of. As compared to other coun-

tween the society of givers and that

tries, Germans strive for optimal

of the receivers. The bond consists of

organization and aren’t necessarily

the obligation to return this gift. Not

as bogged down by things, but by the

to remain in debt.”

thought of not utilizing those things in an ideal way. Italians are thought

Gift-giving is an exchange between

to have the greatest number of aban-

two people, according to Marcel

doned items in their homes.

Mauss, a French sociologist and author of the book The Gift.15 Once a

This is likely because extended

person has given a gift, the recipi-

families live together and all of

ent is essentially indebted to that

their belongings merge together.

person. Lewis Hyde, an essayist who

Meanwhile, Americans become more

studied the anthropology of the gift-

attached to newer purchases regard-

ing economy, also wrote a book titled

less of their sentimental value—it’s

The Gift.16 However, he has another

all about getting as much for their

definition for gift giving. He argues

money as possible.

that a gift must exist with at least three people and can never stop mov-

How can we assess the value and

ing. Once the gift is “owned,” it is no

need for the things we already have

longer a gift, but a commodity. Our

as a way to keep us from needing

Western culture has abstracted the

more? In his essay Materiality and

earliest ideas of gifting illustrated by

The Comfort of Things, Daniel

Mauss and Hyde into the exchange of

Miller, anthropologist, writes, “Con-

one commodity for the next. It is our

sumption is a process by which hu-

interpretation of gifting that makes

man beings materialize or objectify

it very difficult for people to let go

values and meanings, and moreover

of things, which is ironic consider-

resolve conflicts and paradoxes in

ing, in Hyde’s view, a gift was never

everyday life.” Miller also wrote a

intended to stop moving.

book titled Stuff14 in which he says, “The basis of most relationships is

Things: Research

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We shall not, therefore, be concerning ourselves with objects as defined by their functions or by the categories into which they might be subdivided for analytic purposes, but instead with the process whereby people relate to them and with the systems of human behavior and relationships that result there from.â&#x20AC;? Jean Baudrillard

Research

The Psychology of Things

defines loss-aversion as the pain of losing something being worse than the pleasure of gaining something.17

When I spoke with Rob Walker, we

This is particularly evident in the

discussed “the endowment effect.”

realm of heritage.

The endowment effect is the notion that just because something belongs

The passing down of objects from

to you, it is worth more to you than

person to person is common in many

it is to someone else. This often coin-

cultures. It is often a significant

cides with what is called

moment in the life of the recipient.

“loss-aversion”.

When faced with having to decide what to do with these inherited

Psychologist Daniel Kahneman

items, there is often immense guilt

Loss Aversion the pain of losing something is worse than the pleasure of gaining something

The Endowment Effect something is perceived as being worth more simply because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s yours

Things

in choosing what to let go of. The fear

cortex. These areas are associated

of letting go of something, which is

with pain. They are the same parts

believed to embody the person from

of the brain that are triggered when

whom it was received, is more pain-

a smoker attempts to quit smoking.

ful than the joy of holding on to it.

Understanding the psychological gymnastics that occur as we process

In 2008, Kahneman and some of his

the status of our things, I directed

colleagues conducted a study, pub-

my attention towards changing be-

lished in the journal Judgment and

haviors for the long term rather than

Decision Making, that concluded,

just in the moment.

“The longer we hold onto things the more valuable they become.” In

The hardest items to discard, and

the study, Kahneman split 42 test

thus the biggest sources of clutter,

subjects into two groups and asked

are things that hold sentimental val-

them to bid on coffee mugs they’d

ue. In an article in The Wall Street

held in their hands for either ten

Journal titled “The Psychology of

or thirty seconds. The group that

Clutter,”20 Dr. Simon Rego, director

had more physical contact with the

of psychology training at Montefiore

objects bid significantly higher. This

Medical Center in Bronx, NY, says,

study helped illuminate the differ-

“It’s natural to want to hang onto ob-

ences between psychological owner-

jects that trigger memories, but some

ship versus subjective ownership,

people confuse letting go of the object

meaning how our minds interpret

with letting go of the person.”

value versus what the market says it People hold on to physical objects

is worth.

that pertain to people they once But the pain of letting go of some-

knew, goals they once had, or

thing is actually in our brains. In

achievements they once experienced.

2012, researchers at Yale Univer-

In Western society, the exchange

sity

conducted a study about the

of things creates this meaning and

process of letting go of things. What

significance. We become loyal to

they found was that, often, letting

people and brands that promise to

go triggers two areas of the brain:

fulfill personal goals, and provide

the insula and the anterior cingulate

happiness.

Research

I spoke with Gail Steketee,21 Dean of Social Science at Boston University and author of Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.22 She said, “As humans we are fundamentally hard-wired to become emotionally attached to physical objects it’s a survival tactic.” We use objects as security blankets, to remind us that the people we love will take care of us in times of need. In psychology, this is called “object relations theory.” A prime example of this phenomenon is when an infant becomes attached to a stuffed animal or blanket. The comfort that the object provides is a placeholder for the child’s mother. We experience similar feelings as adults in relation to objects.

Gail Steketee, co-author of Compulsive Hoarding and The Meaning of Things

Things

Things On Planet Earth

my explores the lifecycle of an object and challenges the notion of a commodity.”

During the course of my research, I became interested in exploring the

If we think about what the scientist

landscape of ownership in today’s

in the year 3000 will find, it’s sort

economy and how that concept

of embarrassing. It’s hard to imag-

might shift in the future. The shared

ine the scale of this problem, even

economy is becoming more and more

when faced with gut-wrenching

prominent in our society as a result

photographs of heaps of garbage. It’s

of the financial crisis in 2008 and our

apparent that the amount of stuff

access to the internet.

we produce, purchase and throw away is disproportionate to what this

This new business model forces us

planet can handle. If we as a society

to ask: Is it necessary for us to own

demanded less, the latter amount we

things as individuals or can we ex-

waste would decrease. That’s pretty

plore the idea of sharing as a means

easy math.

to make less waste, share stories, and become closer to our peers? In her book The Mesh,23 which discusses the future of business in the shared economy, Lisa Gansky entrepreneur and author, writes, “Pent up waste, becomes value.” The sharing econo-

“Even worse, digital hoarding may be contributing to your ‘information obesity’ — a term now so common it’s usually just shortened to ‘infobesity.’” Dominic Basulto

Research

Digital Things

Jan Christian Bernabe writes, “I’m inclined now to think that sites like eBay, Pinterest, Tumblr, and others

Experiencing something in the

are turning all of us into ‘digital

physical world is very different than

hoarders’ and not into curators (eBay

experiencing something digitally.

gives folks the opportunity to become

I was interested in this dichotomy

a hoarder offline).” The lines are

because at this particular moment in

becoming more and more blurred

time, our true selves and our digital

as our personas in real life become

selves are becoming increasingly

intertwined with those on the web.

connected. By nature, physical objects referI wanted to question the possibility

ence the tangible—the things we can

that digital tools such as photogra-

hold in our hands and experience

phy can become a means to create

with our senses. Senses are major

a memory of something, without

contributors to our recollection of

taking up much physical space.

memory. How can we experience

Much like physical hoarding, there

things behind a screen when we can’t

is a phenomenon known as “digital

feel their weight, texture, and smell?

hoarding.”Digital hoarders have a

As we move into an increasingly

hard time cleaning out files from

digital era, how might we experience

their various technological devices.

the physical through an ephemeral

Platforms such as Pinterest make it

medium, and how do our collections

easy to collect and curate things we

in the real world live in

find interesting across the web, in

the digital?

turn making collecting things on the Internet a form of expressing

While I’m not advocating for endless

one’s identity.

amounts of disorganized external hard drives overflowing with mean-

Services such as Dropbox make digi-

ingless files, I do believe that there

tal storage inexpensive and extreme-

are ways to store things digitally

ly accessible. In an article published

that can act as a proxy for their

on Medium titled We Live In An Age

physical counterpart.

of Hoarding,

artist and curator

Things

Dave Bruno, author of The 100 Things Challenge

Research

Things To Keep

for so much crap if we can disconnect our experiences from accompanying objects.

The following are a few examples of people that have successfully been

It’s been several years since Dave

able to reduce the amount of posses-

completed the challenge and he

sions they own. Each has proclaimed

claims that he still only owns about

that this shift was life-altering in

135 things. When he eliminated

the most positive sense. The greatest

his attachment to consumer goods,

insight I took from these examples is

people stopped trying to give him

that it’s not about deciding what to

things. “A lot of people around the

let go of—it’s about deciding what

world feel ‘stuck in stuff,’” he told

to keep.

me, “They feel like their closets and garages are too full of things that do

I spoke with Dave Bruno, author

not really make their lives

of The 100 Things Challenge. Dave

much better.”

wanted to become a more mindful consumer, so he rid himself of all of

After speaking with Dave, I came to

his possessions, except for 100 select

some conclusions of my own. While

items. He told me, “We think of

he took an extreme route to rejecting

sentimentality as being a good thing,

consumerism by limiting the number

but who says? Creating an emotional

of his things, I see the number as a

attachment to something can also be

guideline rather than a rule to live

pretty dangerous.” Dave expressed

by. In my opinion, someone could

his view on the notion of object

potentially live with a lot less, or a

versus experience.

lot more than that number, and have the same results. However, his ap-

He explained, “When you go to some-

proach resonated with many people

one’s house for dinner you bring

and he has a following that are also

them a token because society tells

trying to hit that target.

you to, but it’s meaningless. What you’re really there for is their com-

Hulda and Josh Klein spoke at

pany and the experience.” In other

a Quantified Self conference in

words, we can reduce the demand

2009 about a similar project they

Things

undertook. Their talk was about

to be a part of their lives anymore.

the in-depth personal inventory

As a result, they used the list to

they created of their things prior

determine what things they needed

to moving from Seattle to Iceland.

to purchase in order to outfit their

They made an enormous spreadsheet

home upon returning to the United

that contained everything that they

States. They could easily avoid un-

owned broken into several categories.

necessary purchases because they

The categories were as follows: I

had created the bible of which things

Love This Thing, and I Use It All the

were essential to them.

Time; I Love This Thing, Because It’s a Good Memory; I Love the Way This

Another great example of letting go

Thing Looks, and I’m Going To Keep

comes from the Radiolab podcast

It; This Is Useful, But It’s Lacking

titled Things.26 Rick Rawlins, a guest

Somehow; This Is Useful, But I Don’t

of the show, tells the story of his

Love It. Everything that fell into the

most valuable possession. It was a

last two categories was discarded in

yellow sugar egg that reminded him

some fashion.

of his childhood and his first childhood friend. The egg was broken over

The project started as a personal

the course of the episode’s taping

tracking system. However, when the

and Rick’s response was somewhat

couple finally settled into a home,

shocking. Rather than be angry, he

they used the list to help them deter-

felt a sense of freedom and decided to

mine how and what to purchase. The

create a new memory for it.

system allowed them to see what was important to them and what they

He proceeded to make new sugar

could do without. The result of this

eggs with a friend’s child as a means

exercise was that, in the end, they

to pay it forward and let go of his

were inevitably surrounded by less

past. This is a prime example of an

stuff. In their talk, they referred to

insight that I found throughout my

the example of an Eames chair they

research repeatedly. Once something

had put into storage and had com-

is gone, it is rarely missed. I like to

pletely forgotten. They argued that if

think of it as the metaphor of ripping

it wasn’t important enough to remain

a Band-Aid off. The anticipation is

in their psyche, then it didn’t need

far worse than the outcome.

Things

The Professionals

I met with professional organizer Amelia Meena27 over a cup of coffee to discuss the ins-and-outs of letting go. Her clients hire her to help organize parts of their home. Services range from a single four-hour session to tackle a specific room to regularly scheduled appointments. All of her clients are in New York City, which means that, for the most part, these are people who are low on space. I Amelia Meena, owner of

asked her what the hardest part of

Appleshine Lifestyle Organization

letting go of something is for the peo ple she works with and she gave me a litany of responses: they paid good money for it; it used to fit and they hope it will again soon; it belonged to someone they loved who passed away; it just needs to be repaired; and so on. During the course of our conversation, she told me what she tells her clients and it strongly resonated with me. She tells them, â&#x20AC;&#x153;That thing you have is a service. You purchased it to serve a purpose, just like any other service. Once it is no longer fulfilling that purpose, it no longer deserves a place in your home.â&#x20AC;?28

Research

As we were talking, two modern-day

ing this. Her book hit the American

examples of such behavior came to

market one month into this thesis.

mind. Take gym memberships. You pay for a membership that you use

At first I felt deflated. It seemed

on a regular basis for the first three

as though she had solved all of the

months. Then your visits become

problems I had been addressing. But

less regular but you continue to go

I soon realized that the number of

intermittently. Finally, you stop

people jumping on the Kondo band-

going altogether. It’s hopeful to say

wagon meant that I have an even

that you will go again soon, but until

greater audience than

that happens, the money you’re

I anticipated.

paying for the membership is a total waste. Now think of your last laptop,

She preaches that we should only

the one that you still have because

surround ourselves with things that

it has all your files on it, but you

spark joy. The “KonMari” method,

haven’t opened it since you got your

as she calls it, involves determining

new one. It might not be costing you

what to keep rather than deciding

anything, but imagine what your

what to get rid of. She believes that

desk would look like without that

the success of her method lies in the

added hardware on it.

ability for people to feel liberated from their clutter and belongings.

Once you get over the hump of let-

The goal is to create a psychologi-

ting go, the anxiety lessens, the pain

cal shift. That shift in mindfulness

is gone, and there is a feeling of free-

directly affects a person’s desire to

dom and euphoria. If you’re reading

consume in the future.

this book, you might be familiar with Marie Kondo, a well-known Japanese professional organizer who wrote a book titled The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.29 This book became an instant New York Times best-seller in October 2014, and remains in the number two spot even seven months later as I’m writ-

“It’s about how firmly Americans are attached to their belongings. We do not know if people store their lava lamps because parting with them is such sweet sorrow. But we do know that they store them because they like them and that they like them because they’re theirs.” Journal of Experimental Psychology

Things

How Did We Get Here?

stuff. The average American household is almost three times the size

Following Word War I, prodution

it was 50 years ago, despite having

soared in the Unites States, and the

fewer occupants.31 One-quarter of

things being produced had to be sold.

homes with two-car garages can’t

Paul Mazur of the Lehman Broth-

even fit one car in it because they use

ers said, “People must be trained

the garage for excess storage.32

to desire, to want new things even before the old had been entirely

As more people move to cities, living

consumed. We must shape a new

quarters are getting smaller and

mentality in America. Man’s desires

smaller. Rather than pairing down

must overshadow his needs.”30 As

on items that are unnecessary and

things became cheaper to produce,

excessive, people often get storage

the demand for more began to define

units. “The storage industry has

our culture.

48,500 locations across the country, more than triple the number of

Having material things has become a

McDonald’s (14,350) restaurants,

way to compare oneself to others. We

and generates $24 billion in revenue

constantly find ourselves asking, “I

every year.”33 Storage units are a

have this many of this thing and you

sort of purgatory for things: We don’t

have that many of that thing, so why

have to expel much mental energy on

don’t we compare things?” Market-

the things inside because they’re not

ing and advertising has infiltrated

in our immediate surroundings, but

our brains, making us think that

we can’t quite part with them. It’s

the next best thing will do the trick.

the perfect business—charge people

The next thing will make you happy,

to store their unwanted items for as

or impress your friends, or make

long as they want. Chances are if it

you look like a great person, but the

goes in, it’s not coming out

truth is that feeling will only last as

anytime soon.

long as it takes for the next thing to come around. Consequently, our homes have gotten larger to accommodate all our

5 Grote, Jason, Nicholson Baker, Jonathan Lethem, Gary Panter, William Gibson, Kurt Andersen, Myla Goldberg, et al. Significant Objects. Edited by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker.

18 Reb, Jochen. Connolly, Terry. Possession, feelings of ownership and the endowment effect. 19 Psychology Today. Why It’s Hard to Let Go of Clutter.

6 Phone interview with Rob Walker.

20 Beck, Melinda. The Psychology of Clutter.

7 Phone interview with Christian Svaned Kolding.

21 Phone interview with Gail Steketee.

8 Schlereth, T. J. Material Culture Studies and Social History Research..Journal of Social History.

22 Frost, Randy O., and Gail Steketee. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.

9 Arnold, Jeanne E. Life at Home in the Twenty-first Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors.

23 Gansky, Lisa. The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing.

10 Green, Penelope. The Way We Live: Drowning in Stuff.

24 Bernabe, J. Christian. We Live in Age of Hoarding

11 Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Eugene Halton. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. 12 Druckerman, Pamela. The Clutter Cure’s Illusory Joy. 13 Borgerson, J; Miller, D; Materiality and the comfort of things: drinks, dining and discussion with Daniel Miller.

25 Phone interview with Dave Bruno. 26 Things. Radiolab. National Public Radio. 27 In person interview with Amelia Meena, Appleshine. 28 Paraphrased from interview.

29 Kondo, Marie, and Inc OverDrive. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

14 Miller, Daniel. Stuff.

15 Mauss, Marcel, and E. E. Pritchard. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies.

Lubin, Gus. There’s a Staggering Conspiracy Behind The Rise of Consumer Culture.

31 Alter, Lloyd. American houses are HUGE! Now 3x bigger than 50 years ago.

16 Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World.

32 Becker, Joshua. The Statistics of Clutter.

17 Kahneman, Daniel, Jack L Knetsch, and Richard H Thaler. Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias.

33 Clark, Patrick. Hoarder Nation: America’s Self- Storage Industry Is Booming.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;To have more you had to spend more, you had to be materialistic: to covet the things thy neighbors, the Joneses, had â&#x20AC;&#x201D; if not their oxen and their donkeys, certainly their cars.â&#x20AC;? James Wallman

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The desire to consume is a kind of lust. We long to have the world flow through us like air or food. We are thirsty and hungry for something that can only be carried inside bodies. But consumer goods merely bait this lust, they do not satisfy it.â&#x20AC;? Lewis Hyde

Chapter 5

Things We Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Need This section of my thesis was influenced heavily by the short book You Have Too Much Shit, by designer Chris Thomas. I created the following list, which inspired a video that summarizes my thesis, it contains examples of common things we keep. The video begins by revealing this minefield of things. Each of the items listed is then individually removed from the pile, illustrating that their presence is no longer necessary.

the boxes from your Apple products

CDs and DVDs (come on)

that enormous stack of magazines that

piles of lost socks hardened paintbrushes and foam rollers

the French dictionary you used in high school Rolled up posters you never look at

all twelve of your identical tote bags

beat up sneakers old ID cards

that pair of glasses from four prescriptions ago

notebooks with only the first nine pages filled out

can double as a side table the bag filled with plastic shopping bags

dried out pens and markers matching â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Love NYâ&#x20AC;? mugs from your ex more than one of your favorite childhood stuffed animals

fake pearls bottles of expired prescription drugs

that stack of old postcards

your turn. use the space provided to write down some things you probably donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need. (Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fun!)

Chapter 6

Audience We All Have Things

exhausted. If we are unable to identify what we a already have, it’s hard to know what we want to have. This

This thesis started as a personal ex-

tension leads people to purchase not

ploration into my relationship with

only things they currently own, but

the things I own. I wanted to iden-

things they currently own and don’t

tify the reasons why I care about

use, don’t love, and don’t need.

them (or don’t) and how it affects me as a consumer. The deeper I dug and

By way of research and observation,

the more research I did, I found that

I have found that the people that

indeed these two things are linked.

hold their things in high regard can

That which we already own directly

be divided into two categories. There

affects us as consumers.

are those that follow, acting much like their predecessors, and those

As things get buried deeper and

that react, by adopting the exact

deeper into our closets, they also get

opposite behavior. The former is a

buried in our psyche. The amount

person who cannot let anything go

of mental energy it would take to

for fear that she can never get it back

recall everything we own at all times

or that the memory of that thing

would render us completely

will disappear if it is not physically

Things

present. The latter is a person who

included and myself especially.

finds no value in keeping something

Almost everyone is a target of this

for its sentimental value alone.

thesis. Even those that believe they

When faced with the option of either

have no emotional attachment to

keeping everything or getting rid of

things become attached to things

everything, that person chooses op-

unwittingly. Undoubtedly things at-

tion two without hesitation.

tach themselves to humans, whether people would like to admit it or not.

What is often overlooked is that

However, hoarders are an extreme

that the physical burden of owning

case and not necessarily included

things breeds mental burden. In

in my target audience. I’m not a

Western society, we are constantly

psychologist and I’m not pretending

bombarded by media and our social

to be one. There are varying levels of

networks, both insisting we need to

attachment and extreme hoarding is

consume more. We are overworked,

one that needs to be treated on a

underpaid, stressed, and don’t have

deeper level.

enough time for our families and friends There are countless platforms

I believe that there are design inter-

and apps that are trying to help solve

ventions that can assist those with

this problem, but they fail to address

lesser degrees of attachment. Profes-

the stress of being able to have any-

sional organizers suggest that some-

thing you want at the click of

one should be present for emotional

a button.

support34 when a person is trying to let go of things. Is it possible for a

From the research that I have gath-

design intervention to provide that

ered over the last few months, I have

emotional support? Could there be a

come across a similar finding over

solution that “holds on” to things in

and over again. Mindfulness makes

the digital realm rather than in

change. We cannot know how to act

the physical?

differently or change our behaviors unless we can identify that a change

This thesis is for those of us that

is needed. I would argue that most

feel bound by personal possessions,

Americans have an unhealthy rela-

those that feel our things are keep-

tionship to their belongings, myself

ing us from moving forward. If we

Audience

could more easily understand how the things in our lives really affect us, we could cultivate a culture of mindfulness, with less waste, less production, and more value.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, and ourselves. Yet, rarely is it recognized as a significant source of stress in our lives.â&#x20AC;? Psychology Today 87

“A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.” George Carlin

Audience

Opportunities

While the latter is certainly the better of the two options, there remains an excess of stuff in the world.

Part of the difficulty in disposing of things is not knowing where and

But there’s good news! People (par-

how to do so. Throwing something

ticularly Millennials) are recognizing

in a donation bin in the parking lot

that stuff doesn’t always make us

of your nearby grocery store doesn’t

as happy as we want it to, and thus

feel quite right, but putting in more

there has been a shift from spending

effort than that can seem like an un-

money on things to spending money

bearable task. However, once you’ve

on experiences. This shift is referred

accomplished this task—figuring out

to as the “Experiential Revolution”

where to recycle your electronics or

or “Experientialism.” It’s a response

where your donated clothes will get

to what futurist James Wallman35

the best use—future attempts to get

refers to as “Stuffocation,” which is

rid of things will be less daunting.

the anxiety associated with having too many things. If we are able to

So where can things go? They can

transform consumption of things to

be sold using various web platforms

consumption of experiences, perhaps

such as eBay or Craigslist; donated

we can reverse some of the damage

to different charitable organizations;

done to the planet as well as our

gifted to friends or family in need;

mental status.

recycled or just thrown away. The thing to consider when getting rid of stuff is the difference between an “after-life” and a “next-life.” “Afterlife” suggests that the object in question has reached the end of its road and is pronounced dead. “Next-life” is an object reborn, re-used, re-vitalized, re-cycled, up-cycled, or donated to a good cause.

What Happens To Your Things When You Die? If you’ve ever experienced the loss

to tell what might have actually

of a loved one, you can likely relate

been valuable to them. You could be

to this next section. Confronting the

keeping something totally meaning-

stuff left behind by others can be a

less because you think it’s valuable

daunting and emotionally draining

and getting rid of that person’s most

task. It can be a way for families to

prized possession instead.

come together over the passing of someone or it can tear relationships

To make the process more complex,

to shreds.

there are family heirlooms. While I can appreciate from afar the richly

As if determining the value of your

ornate, handcrafted furniture that

own things isn’t difficult enough, try

belonged to those before me, there’s

doing so for other people’s things.

really no place in my heart for co-

When my grandmother passed away,

existing with something I find to

her home was a preserved museum

be aesthetically unappealing. But

of things. This got me into think-

getting rid of someone else’s treasure

ing about the idea of appraisals. An

often comes with a lot of guilt. It’s

appraisal is when a professional

hard to be practical without seeming

assigns value to an item based on

insensitive. My fascination with this

its condition, the market, and so on.

particular flavor of things, and the

Think “Antiques Roadshow.”36 But

tension it creates, became the inspi-

regardless of what something might

ration for one of my final offerings.

be worth in dollars and cents, it’s likely to be worth something entirely different in emotional value. So, for the sake of this thesis, I redefined appraisal as determining the value of something from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. 34 From interview with Amelia Meena.

The difficulty in going through

35 Wallman, James. Stop Accumulating Stuff And Start Accumulating Experiences.

someone else’s stuff is that it’s hard

Chapter 7

Things Early On Initial Ideas & Prototypes

The first means of generating content for this thesis was in creating a series of speculative objects. Speculative objects act as a way to provoke thought and question ideas rather than act as fully formed products. These objects were designed to test whether or not meaning could be assigned to everyday objects. Since the goals and objectives of this thesis shifted as time went on, a lot of the early prototypes speak to the ability to actually create value, to make things more desirable.

Things

Googly Glasses

Special Delivery

My first prototype was humble

The second stage of my speculative

yet effective. I asked myself how I

process probed the notion of gift-giv-

might take something mundane and

ing. This area of exploration involved

inconsequential, and alter it slightly

two different prototypes. For the

to add even a marginal amount of

first, I arranged a special delivery.

value. I took nine identical drinking

Several months ago, I purchased

glasses and a pitcher of water and

a book for my classmate Brandon.

set them on the table. Three of the

When I saw the book, I had that

drinking glasses were adorned with a

moment wash over meâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the moment

pair of googly eyes.

when you know a particular thing was meant for a particular person.

My goal was to see if adding person-

I held on to the book, knowing that

ality to these glasses would make

Brandonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birthday was not

them more desirable to the user. The

far away.

answer was yes, the adorned glasses were selected first by the partici-

In an effort to deliver what I had

pants. While this may have been a

imagined to already be a pretty good

very small intervention, it proved

gift in an even more special way, I

that humans could be manipulated

had Berk, another classmate, dress

into assigning value to otherwise

up as in a turtle costume that I had

ordinary objects, making them

handcrafted and deliver the pack-

more desirable.

age to Brandon while reciting a note that I had written. My hope was that when Brandon looks at the book several years from now, he will not only enjoy the gift, but recall the way in which it was given to him. This success of this is hard to assessâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;only time will tell.

Things

Gift Cards?

The Kaleidoscope

I then sought to challenge the cul-

The next prototype, which I’ll refer to

tural aspect of gifting. Whenever I

as The Kaleidoscope, utilized the col-

receive a gift card to X location for Y

lections of three different individu-

dollars, it usually sits in my wal-

als as a series of lenses. In a typical

let until it expires. As a response

Kaleidoscope, the portion filled with

to that, I made a series of fake gift

glass or beads is referred to as the

cards that cannot or should not exist,

“object chamber.” I made a simple

challenging the notion of the con-

kaleidoscope whose object chamber

sumer as gift-giver.

could be easily removed and replaced with someone else’s. By asking some-

I made several gifts cards: a gift card

one to fill this small chamber with

to the moon (seemingly excellent

things that are important to them,

but highly improbable or worthless);

I was challenging the idea of seeing

a gift card to Circuit City (which

through someone else’s eyes.

could have been useful pre-2008, but is currently devoid of any value whatsoever in 2014 because the store no longer exists); and a gift card for an extended visit to jail. Although on the surface, the last seems the most trite of the bunch, I actually think it might be the most powerful as it relates to the notion of value. It forces you to put yourself in the mind-set of someone who is stripped of all of her worldly possessions. It raises the question, “If I were going to jail what would I bring?”

Things

Essence

Slice Of Life

I wanted to expand upon this idea

My final prototype was in the form

further, imagining it as a salable

of a short film. Borrowing from the

commercial product. The result was

style of a cheesy 1990s sitcom, I

a product called Essence, which is a

created the first in a series of shorts

pair of identical, but empty contain-

titled Slice of Life that personifies

ers. The person who purchases it

the objects that exist in a home

should complete the first container.

and allows them to tell their own

That person fills the container with

stories. The first episode was about

the â&#x20AC;&#x153;essenceâ&#x20AC;? of whichever package

neglect. The conversations between

they purchased and then gives both

the inanimate objects revealed which

containers to someone else, asking

are the most and least cared for by

for theirs when completed. While the

their owner. By allowing the objects

exchange may be a delightful one,

themselves to speak, viewers become

it can also be one of release. What

familiar with the owner of

might it look like to hand someone

these objects.

the physical essence of your anger or happiness or melancholy, and get his

Several of these early prototypes re-

or hers in return?

surfaced towards the end of this thesis and became developed concepts.

Things

Press Release In an effort to imagine this thesis on a large scale, I created the following press release that suggests a partnership with IKEA. IKEA products have a reputation of being somewhat disposable, which makes sense considering how inexpensive they are. Most are constructed out of cheap material that does not wear well over time. Aside from its lack of durability, there is a planned obsolescence built into the IKEA manufacturing process. These items don’t travel well, they don’t break apart easily, and in a few years time, it’s inevitable that the glossy outer shell will begin to reveal the not-sosecret shoddy construction underneath. This collaboration between IKEA and myself re-imagines IKEA’s identity as a heritage brand.

100

IKEA PS collection 2017 Since 1995, IKEA has come out with what they call the PS Collection (meaning Post Scriptum) every three years. The collections speak to a common theme—you may remember last year’s titled “For People And Homes In Constant Motion.” The 2017 collection is already in the planning stages thanks to Elisa Werbler, a student from SVA’s Products of Design department. Werbler’s work questions the notion of value in everyday objects and the ability of these things to create connections between people. The 2017 collection is titled Heritage and challenges the disposable nature of IKEA products. “This collection harkens back to IKEA’s old days,” says Werbler. “We are creating a collection that speaks to today’s audiences as well as to future ones. The fabrication processes for this collection are celebrated and the customer becomes part of the experience. Nobody thinks of the passing down of IKEA furniture as a ceremonial experience. They will now.” Heritage will include several limited edition pieces with a cap on the number of items delivered to each store. You’ll still need to put your purchases together yourself, but you can count on them lasting through your next cross-country move and far beyond. “It’s the combination of manufactured and custom that makes this line unique,” says Werbler. “IKEA has never done anything like this before. It’s going to be an adventure.”

101

Things

Branded Objects

Moving forward, I created a series of products that work together to assess the value of things, inspired by the frameworks developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi during his ethnographic research .

Decision Dice The first in the series of objects is a set of dice that is designed to help you make decisions about the things you currently own. One of the dice has a series of questions, one on each face. The questions are as follows: Was it a gift?; Do you love it?; How many do you have?; Could you replace it?; When is the last time you used it?; and Where did you get it? The other dice has proposed responses on it that read: Donate, Toss, Smash, Sell, Gift, and Keep. The idea is that by pairing both a question and response together, you will begin to think about your possessions from a different perspective in a way that can inform your decisions on what to do with them.

104

Things Early On

105

Things

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time The second of the series is an archiving system called Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Time uses clear cellophane bags of different sizes as a means to separate you from your things. The bags come with a blank card, which is to be filled out for each item. On this card, you include all necessary information about that particular item, including its origins, its material and, most importantly, its significance to you.

106

Things Early On

107

Things

Time Capsule

It’s Time is designed to work in conjunction with Time Capsule, which is a digital archiving system. The

About

How It Works

The Book

It's Time

following is Time Capsule’s mission statement, as it would read

Holding on to your things so you don't have to.

to customers: “Our society suffers from an affliction known as loss aversion. Loss aversion means that the pain felt from

Time Capsule digital archive meaningful th

Over time we things. Some a go of than oth to help.

Equipped with you determine keeping, Time you eliminate mental clutter

losing something is worse than the pleasure of gaining something, so letting go can be a tough pill to swallow. Time Capsule is your personal

Time Capsule

digital archive of things, using tools and metrics to help you assess the value of your belongings and decide whether or not to move on, because

About

How It Works

The Book

It's Time

some things are easy to let go of than

Item Nº 42 I call this ‘Artisti It came from An In 2005 It is made of yel plastic

others. In essence Time Capsule creates a digital backup of your things.

What’s the story

One morning, w woke from troub found himself tra bed into a horri on his armour-lik lifted his head a see his brown be and divided by sections. The be

108

Things Early On

Time Capsule 6

About

How It Works

The Book

It's Time

is your personal e of your most hings.

collect a lot of are harder to let hers, we are here

h tools to help e what is worth Capsule helps both physical and r.

Time Capsule 6

About

How It Works

The Book

It's Time

Item Nº 42 I call this ‘Artistic’ Pencil Case It came from Annie In 2005 It is made of yellow and green plastic

ic’ Pencil Case nnie

llow and green

when Gregor Samsa bled dreams, he ansformed in his ible vermin. He lay ke back, and if he a little he could elly, slightly domed arches into stiff edding was hardly

Price Function Person Place Time

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Things

Maybe The final branded object is called Maybe, which is designed to put time between your impulse to purchase and the actual purchase itself. Shaped like a credit card, it has three circular windows to look through. Above two of the windows are the words “yes” and “no”, as in “I must have this,” and “No, I don’t want this at all.” The third window is a larger circle in the center that says “Maybe.” Maybe has a timer function. You can set the timer for up to an hour and proceed with your shopping. When the timer is up you can make a more informed decision about your purchase. Do you really need that thing? Or was it just a gut reaction? Maybe has a digital counterpart titled Impulse. Impulse is a browser plug-in that blocks your online purchases for a full 48 hours, allowing you ample time to reflect on your purchase before it has even happened.

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Things Early On

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112

Chapter 8

Developed Things they all share a common thread, and

Final Offerings

thus are designed to complement one another. Much of what you will find

This chapter summarizes my

here is a combination of completed

final offerings for this thesis. After

work, and the process it took to

digesting all of the research and

get there.

prototypes that I had done up until this point, it was time to synthesis this information into final deliverables. Here you will find work that has been filtered through several lenses such as speculative objects, a service, an experience, and a mobile application. These projects touch on different points of my explorations; from acquiring new things, to how to deal with the reality of what will happen to these things once youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re gone. Each offering is unique, however

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Developed Things

Futuring & Speculation

of person (ex. cousin), a characteristic (ex. heirloom), where the object came from (ex. purchased), and a

When we think about designed

fictional scenario (ex. RFID37 Every-

objects, we are likely thinking about

thing: All physical objects produced

the now, creating something that

after 2030 have a unique RFID tag,

will exist in this current world and

meaning each object can be tracked

for our current society. That can be

until it and the tag are completely

limiting. By stretching the imagina-

destroyed).

tion beyond what is currently real, we can begin to formulate different

Each person was instructed to create

hypotheses around design. Futur-

a fictional narrative that encom-

ing is a lens through which we can

passed all five elements, including

imagine what will happen in five, 10,

an illustration of the outcome. This

100, or even 1,000 years from now.

resulted in 18 fictional stories. From

This is a tool used for contemplation

these stories I was able to reduce the

and speculation. Likewise, it is ben-

areas of speculation down to three

eficial to imagine a parallel world

buckets. The first was about gifting,

existing right beside our current

the second was about digital versus

one, allowing designers to question

physical things, and the third was

the status quo with rhetorical

about the transfer of ownership from

design interventions.

one person to another.

In a futuring experiment, I con-

I created a prototype to address each

ducted a co-creative workshop where

of the three buckets. The first two,

six participants worked together to

Digital Hoarding Capsule, and Soon,

speculate on the future of our inter-

are rough prototypes while the third,

action with objects. All six partici-

Chain-Of-Custody, is the most devel-

pants gathered around a table with

oped offering.

ten random objects in the center. Each person was given a worksheet and asked to choose one object and one card from four different categories. The categories included a type

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Developed Things

Soon

Digital Hoarding Capsule

Soon challenges the notion of gift-

As we move towards an increasingly

giving in the future. Soon acts as a

digital age, our relationship with

placeholder for a gift that you intend

physical objects is changing. With

to give someone but havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought

the help of platforms like Pinterest,

of yet. It even looks like a tradition-

Flickr, and Instagram, it is inevi-

ally wrapped gift, but it is made of

table that we are moving towards a

solid cast plaster. The person who re-

society of digital hoarding. Digital

ceives the gift is the one who assigns

storage is getting faster and cheap-

the meaning and significance of that

er, making it even easier to never let

gift, rather than the other

go of another file.

way around.

The Digital Hoarding Capsule holds on to your most important files and changes your perception and experience of that image, by viewing it projected into a tubular vessel much like a kaleidoscope rather than behind a screen. By looking at our files in an obscure way, we can begin to question the distance between virtual and reality.

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Things

118

Developed Things

Chain-Of-Custody Chain-Of-Custody is a way to

once they’re gone.

preserve your most valuable objects and communicate to your loved ones

It’s also an indication of what is

which things are most important to

worth passing on. It might be the ob-

you, and what you would like to be

vious set of china, or expensive jew-

passed on. Think of it as a living will

elry, but it could be something much

for your things. The form is bor-

more humble, much more mundane

rowed from evidence bags used in

that has particular significance. This

a police investigation and its name

physical intervention affords the

references the process an item goes

user the opportunity to create narra-

through during a criminal investiga-

tives within each individual bag.

tion. It consists of a series of bags running from the very small (some-

The purpose of this strange inter-

thing you might put jewelry in) to

vention is to put a physical layer

the quite large (large enough for fur-

between you and your things. How

niture to fit in). Each bag has a label

does it feel to have your most valu-

on it to indicate when and where it

able stuff locked away, unable to

should go. There is a valve at the

be used while you still live with it?

bottom that removes any remaining

Does it make you feel more or less

air once the bag has been sealed.

attached to it? Do the objects inside become that much more precious, or

In an investigation the Chain-

does it make them feel sterile and

Of-Custody refers to the order in

unimportant? Regardless of what the

which a piece of evidence moves; for

outcome may be, it’s an opportunity

example: from the scene of the crime

to question the value of your things

to the police bureau and so on. So,

while you’re still here, so that the

without being too morbid, I adopted

burden of doing so is not left to the

this as a way for someone to indicate

ones you love when you’re not.

to whom their belonging might go to

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130

Developed Things

Attachment

train and got an e-mail about one such missing item sent to the entire

During the course of my work, I

academic department, hoping to find

landed on the word “attachment” as

out where it had gone. I also re-

a means of describing my thesis in

ceived a skeptical text message from

one word. I tested the “attachment”

a classmate, also peeved about her

of my peers to their possessions in

missing item.

the form of an experiment. The evening before this experiment, I care-

I found this tactic, while somewhat

fully selected one object off of each

unsettling and perhaps a bit rude, to

person’s desk and placed it inside

be really effective. In theory, if some-

of a box. The selection process was

thing is meaningful and important

harder than I imagined it would be.

to someone, it would be missed. If a

Some people don’t keep very much

person is unable to recall what was

on their desks and some people had

once there, does that item deserve to

so much stuff I had a hard time

take up physical space and

deciding what to select.

mental space?

The intention was that during class I would send each person back to their desk to investigate what was missing. If the person could identify what had been removed, they would get it back. If they could not, that thing would remain in my custody. The results were scattered across the board. Some noticed what was missing before I even had a chance to present the experiment, and frantically searched for the missing thing. Others had no idea what went missing. The morning after I took the objects, I was unintentionally late to class due to a delayed

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Things

132

Developed Things

Lossless Based on psychological research

the couch only cost a fraction of what

conducted throughout this thesis,

they’re paying for storage. They don’t

as well as extensive system map-

calculate how much money

ping through cybernetic modeling,

they’re losing.”

I created a service called Lossless. Cybernetics38 is a method through

Lossless is a speculative service that

which goals can be identified and

I explored through the lens of busi-

achieved. Creating systems maps us-

ness modeling, which allowed me to

ing cybernetics illuminates feedback

answer some of the questions about

loops that exist in each system. Once

what it might take to actually get it

the problem has been identified, the

off the ground. The following pitch

maps create pathways and opportu-

was presented to potential inves-

nities to solve that problem.

tors.39

The term “lossless” refers to the ability to compress documents to a smaller size without losing quality. The service Lossless that I created aims to help people get rid of the things that are weighing them down, so that they can enjoy the things that aren’t. This service was inspired my conversation with professional organizer Amelia Meena of Appleshine. She said, “People pay hundreds of dollars a year in fees for a storage unit to hold a couch that they don’t need, but feel they haven’t gotten the full value of yet. Even if

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Letting go of things is hard... Over time we create emotional attachments to things because of who they remind us of, where they came from, or simply just because theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ours. Studies show that physical clutter results in decreased productivity and increased stress.

Lossless is a service that helps people uncover the true value of their things by temporarily (or permanently) removing them from their possession. Lossless helps people get rid of the things that are weighing them down, in an effort to lead simpler, less cluttered lives, both physically and mentally.

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how it works: Lossless tools help you identify which items to sequester in Losslessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; safe storage units. Once removed, Lossless photographs each item and places it into a database with your description of that item and any significance associated with it. The item is then placed online where others can bid on it for purchase. You can also ask for a donation.

You are then faced with the decision of what to do with the item, but the decision is always yours. Each listing becomes part of your personal digital archive, so you can hold on to the memory without holding on to the thing itself. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not getting rid of it completelyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s just taking up less space. Lossless members are unable to purchase through the platform themselves until they have let go of several of their own possessions.

So who needs Lossless? Lots of people. Take a look around your home. If it’s full of items you think you love, but never actually touch, you need Lossless. If you’re moving and think it’s best to box everything up and deal with it later, you need Lossless. If you’re frustrated with the amount of stuff you’ve accumulated, but you don’t know where to begin, you need Lossless.

At Lossless, we understand that the emotional value of your things doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always align with its market value. We make money by charging you for the amount of time and space your stuff takes up. We also take a small percentage of any transactions made through the listing. We will get our first customers by recruiting friends and family, as well as offering the service as a free trial to a number of our target users.

Ultimately, our goal is to help free people from their emotional attachment to things that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t actually bring them any joy and happiness. By helping people uncover their true wants and needs, we can help them live simpler lives and become more mindful consumers.

Join us, you have nothing to lose.

Lossless Lossless property of item no.

description

date in

date out

Lossless your name (print):

How It Works your name (sign): Letting go of things is hard... Over time we create emotional attachments to things because of who they remind us of, where they came from, or simply just because they’re ours.

today’s date:

You’re about to embark on a Lossless journey. You’ve come to the realization that it’s time to do something about the stuff you have accumulated in your home.

why Lossless?

Congrats, that is the first step in the Lossless process! Here’s what you can expect from our time together today: We’ll start by setting some realistic goals, such as a particular category of item or a specific room to tackle. For the things you feel ready to toss we will toss. For the things you would like to donate, we will attempt to find a good home for. For the things you love and use regularly and would like to stay put, those will stay put. For those things that you haven’t quite been able to part with, or think you might need in the future- those get the Lossless treatment. We will set those items aside and then photograph each one, give it a unique label, and catalog it in your personal digital archive. These things we will then box and take to a near-by reserved storage unit, which you will have access to should you need an item in the near future. Then we wait.

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The items that have been sequestered in storage will live there for one month. After a month we will revisit these items and see how you feel about them, after having removed them from your space. While the ultimate goal is to create a more pleasing, more desirable and more livable space for you, we can also consider this an experiment and learning opportunity. For the sake of today’s accomplishments larger items like couches and dining room tables might not fit into the equation, but if we think they too should go, we will find a way in the near future! Documentation of the process is important, however your identity and privacy will be protected to your utmost level of comfort. The storage unit will be provided for you free of charge for 3 whole months should you need it for that long. The goal is to eliminate the need for the storage unit altogether, but we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for participating, you have nothing to lose!

Developed Things

Lossless Prototype

In hindsight, the process of documentation should have happened while

Beyond this experiment, I also want-

we were processing things, not after.

ed to prototype the service Lossless

I believe the pressure of having to

with real users in order to test the

come up with a story for each thing

efficacy of the idea and make any

would have changed the outcome of

changes necessary.

the amount of stuff she was able to part with.

I visited my friend Liz Eddy and her fiancé in their apartment, which

The following script illustrates the

they have lived in for about six

engagement, interaction, and conclu-

years in order to try out the Lossless

sion to this test:

process. This design-led research uncovered many insights about this service. Armed with a toolkit of stuff, from tags and boxes to a functioning prototype of what the Lossless platform would look like, I entered the home of Liz and her fiancé on March 21, 2015. While I don’t have the full results yet, there were some big insights that I walked away with from this prototype. Liz described her experience of the process here: “Having to write about everything was difficult. After about 7 things, you start to realize that these things aren’t really as important as you thought they were.”

151

item no.

Lossless

3.21.15

date

your name: Liz Eddy

object title: Pen Box

sentimental value: x

estimated market value:

0.00

describe this thing: This pen box belongs to a limited edition Jules Verne waterman fountain pen. My father bought me this pen when I was a kid. It was my first (and remains my only) fancy fountain pen. I used to keep it in itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s box because it was precious to me. Now I use the pen and have no use for the box. I just like it.

Things

162

Developed Things

Trappings What I learned from my experience

that they are having a hard time

in prototyping Lossless led me to

making a decision about, and the

create Trappings. What I realized

application helps them get to a re-

from Liz was that the order in which

sponse. For example, you would start

possessions are processed has a huge

by clicking on the question “Should

impact on the outcome of each deci-

I Buy This?” when confronted with a

sion. Trappings focuses on the pivot-

new purchase. You can also create a

al moment when a decision is being

wish list in the app. It keeps track of

made. I also wanted to address the

how long each item has been on your

insight I discovered while talking to

wish list and periodically asks you

Amelia Meena,she said, “Sometimes

if you still want it there. Trappings

people just need permission, or a

tracks your responses and gives you

good push .” 40 I thought this was a

feedback on your answers. By visual-

good opportunity to provide the emo-

izing your journey through each set

tional support necessary, as well as

of questions, the user can begin to

give someone a push. Trappings has

gain insights into their behaviors

a personality that is very supportive,

and shift them accordingly. Much

but equally sassy.

like Lossless, you can digitize those items you are ready to part with.

Trappings is a mobile application that acts like an interactive flow

This is designed to battle the inter-

chart. It starts by asking you target-

nal dialogue that goes on inside our

ed questions about your things, such

minds as we contemplate the status

as “What is your favorite article of

of our things. It is there for you in

clothing?” or “What is your most

times of need, like whenever you are

prized possession?” These answers

considering a new purchase. The goal

are then used as a way to elicit an

is to create positive behaviors around

emotional response. The user goes

your things by being more contem-

through an additional series of tar-

plative rather than making

geted questions for each unique item

mindless decisions.

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36 Antiques Roadshow is a television program originally broadcast on PBS in 1979 where experts appraise antiques. 37 RFID stands for radio frequency identification. RFID tags are attached to objects as a tracking device. 38 Cybernetics is an approach to exploring systems, their boundaries, how they are constructed, and opportunities within the system. 39 This concept was pitched to a panel of venture capitalists, however there was no intention of them actually funding the project. 40 In person interview with Amelia Meena.

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Chapter 9

Future Things Looking Forward

tainly respect my decision to reduce the number of things that I have and will take no offense to me not accepting physical gifts.

While I have already seen the effects of this thesis on myself, I’m most interested in seeing how it reaches others.

I’m excited about the opportunity to

Personally, I purchase things with

turn some of my ideas into reali-

greater enthusiasm because my pur-

ties. The feedback that I’ve received

chases are far less frequent. My stuff

throughout this process has given me

has reduced in volume considerably,

the confidence to move forward with

and I no longer spend time agonizing

this work. I have been told on several

over deciding whether or not some-

occasions that many of my design

thing should go. I feel less stressed out

offerings not only could, but should

by the stacks of magazines that don’t

exist. I look forward to taking with

exist anymore and I’m happy to say

me everything that I have learned

that the people around me have begun

over the past two years as I move on

to catch this fever.

to the next chapter in my life.

Even for those who have no desire to contemplate their belongings, they cer-

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176

Chapter 10

More Things Here are some more things to look at; like what some of these strange terms mean, and where I got all this information from.

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Lexicon After-Life What happens to something once it has been disposed of Appraisal The act of estimating the value of something, taking both qualitative and quantitative measures into account Archive A catalogue of things Clutter A state of confusion and disorder either mentally or physically Digital Hoarding The accumulation of digital files for fear of losing something Endowment Effect Theory that your belongings are more valuable to you than to others just because they are yours Futuring A way of thinking about an issue critically by imagining what the future outcome of an idea may be, based on what we know now Gift Something given to another person without an exchange involving payment Heritage Something that is passed on from a previous generation; inherited Loss-Aversion Theory that refers to peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tendency to feel more pain over loss, than joy over gain Next-Life The opportunity for an object to be re-purposed after its initial use Purgatory The place between having something and not having it

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Qualify To determine the quality of, in regard to personal enjoyment, memory, connection to others, etc. Quantify To determine the quantity of, in regards to monetary value Sequester To isolate objects from your immediate surroundings to another location Speculative A process, which challenges the current status of something by provoking questions around the subject of interest Stuffocation Anxiety brought on by having too many things Things Also known as: stuff, items, objects, trappings, mementos, objects, items, etc. Value The worth of something in terms of the amount of other things from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective

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Select Bibliography Alter, Lloyd. American Houses Are HUGE! Now 3x Bigger Than 50 Years Ago. TreeHugger. 14 November. 2013. Web. Arnold, Jeanne E. Life at Home in the Twenty-first Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors. Los Angeles. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. 2012. Basulto, Dominic. Just Say No To Digital Hoarding.The Washington Post. 16 December 2014. Web. Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation.Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser. First Edition, 17th Printing edition. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1995. Baudrillard, Jean. The System of Objects. London: Verso, 1996. Print. Becker, Joshua. The Statistics of Clutter. Becoming Minimalist. 19 January 2010. Web. Beck, Melinda. The Psychology of Clutter. The Wall Street Journal. 8 Jul. 2014. Web. Belk, Russell. Possessions And The Extended Self. The Journal of Consumer Research. 15 February 1988. 139-68. Print. Bernabe, J. Christian. We Live in Age of Hoarding — I. M. H. O. Medium. 26 October 2013. Web. Berzoff, Joan. Inside out and outside In: Psychodynamic Clinical Theory and Psychopathology in Contemporary Multicultural Contexts. 2nd ed. Lanham, Md.: Jason Aronson. 2008. Print. Borgerson, J; Miller, D; Materiality and the comfort of things: drinks, dining and discussion with Daniel Miller. Consumption, Markets and Culture.155 - 170. 2009. Bruno, Dave. The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2010. Carter, Sherrie Bourg. Why Mess Causes Stress. 8 reasons, 8 remedies: The mental cost of clutter. Psychology Today. 12 March. 2012. Web.

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Clark, Patrick. Hoarder Nation: America’s Self-Storage Industry Is Booming. Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg. 1 Dec. 2014. Web. Druckerman, Pamela. The Clutter Cure’s Illusory Joy. The New York Times. 16 Feb. 2015. Web. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Eugene Halton. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. Cambridge England: Cambridge UP. 1981. Print. Dykstra, Josh Allan. Why Millennials Don’t Want To Buy Stuff. Fast Company. 13 July 2012. Web. Frost, Randy O., and Gail Steketee. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. Gansky, Lisa. The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing. New York, N.Y. Portfolio Penguin. 2010. Print. Glenn, Joshua. Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance. New York Princeton Architectural Press. 2007. Print. Green, Penelope. The Way We Live: Drowning in Stuff. The New York Times. June 2012. Web. Grote, Jason, Nicholson Baker, Jonathan Lethem, Gary Panter, William Gibson, Kurt Andersen, Myla Goldberg, et al. Significant Objects. Edited by Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker. Original edition. Seattle, WA: Fantagraphics. 2012. Hamblin, James. Buy Experiences, Not Things. The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company. 7 October 2014. Web. Higgins, Chris. Digital Museum Immortalises Your Useless Sentimental Trinkets. Wired UK. 10 September 2014. Web

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Hyde, Lewis. The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. 25th Anniversary Ed. 2nd Vintage Books ed. New York: Vintage Books, 2007. July, Miranda. It Chooses You. First Trade Paper Edition edition. San Francisco, Ca: McSweeney’s, 2012. Kahneman, Daniel, Jack L Knetsch, and Richard H Thaler. Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 193-206. Print. Kahneman, Daniel. The Riddle of Experience vs. Memory. Web. Kondo, Marie, and Inc OverDrive. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. S.I: Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony. 2014. Print. Lewis, Hyde. The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. Random House. 1983. Print. Lubin, Gus. There’s a Staggering Conspiracy Behind The Rise of Consumer Culture. Business Insider. 23 February. 2013. Web. Manson, Mark. Minimalism. 14 June 2012. Web. Mauss, Marcel, and E. E. Pritchard. The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. New York: Norton, 1967. McGonigal, Kelly. Why It’s Hard to Let Go of Clutter. Psychology Today. August 2012. Web. Miller, Daniel. Stuff. Cambridge: Polity. 2010. Print. MoMA | Talk to Me | The Things We Keep. Web. 2010. Mooallem, Jon. Death, Redesigned. The California Sunday Magazine. 2015. Web. Morewedge, Carey K., Lisa L. Shu, Daniel T. Gilbert, and Timothy D. Wilson. Bad Riddance or Good Rubbish? Ownership and Not Loss Aversion Causes the Endowment Effect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: 947-51. Print.

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Reb, Jochen. Connolly, Terry. Possession, Feelings of Ownership And The Endowment Effect. Society for Judgement and Decision Making Vol. 2. No. 2. April 2007. Rebaudengo, Simone. Addicted Products. IxD Awards. 2014. Web. Richards, Carl. Being Mindful Can Help Guide a Decision. The New York Times. 28 Sept. 2014. Web. Rosenfeld, Louis. Letting Go of Things. And History. Medium. 7 October 2014. Web. Schlereth, T. J. Material Culture Studies and Social History Research. Journal of Social History. 1983. Things. Radiolab. 31 May 2014. National Public Radio. Thomas, Christopher. You Have Too Much Shit. The Duplicators. 2014. Turkle, Sherry. Evocative Objects Things We Think With. Cambridge, Mass. MIT. 2007. Print. Walker, Rob. A Weekly Ritual Erases Material Meanings ... and Maybe Starts New Object Biographies. Design Observer. Web. Walker, Rob. Buying In: What We Buy and Who We Are. New York. Random House Trade Paperbacks. 2010. Wallman, James. Stop Accumulating Stuff And Start Accumulating Experiences. Co.Exist. 3 Apr. 2014. Web. Williams, Peter, Jeremy Leighton John, and Ian Rowland. The Personal Curation Of Digital Objects: A Lifecycle Approach. Aslib Proceedings: 340-63. Print.

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Thanks. Thank you to all those who helped me complete this thing, I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have done it without you.

184

Allan Chochinov

To the class of 2014

Gabrielle Kellner

(for paving the way)

Marko Manriquez

To the class of 2016

Alisha Wessler

(youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re next)

Eliz Ayaydin

Tak Cheung

George Crichlow

John Heida

Vidhi Goel

Boris Klompus

Lance Green

Leif Krinkle

Steve Hamilton Lusha Huang

Lex Berko

Andres Iglesias Berk Ilhan

Bryan Boyer

Lucy Knops

Dave Bruno

Miguel Olivares

Aaron Straup Cope

Julia Plevin

Mary DiBiasio

May Sun

Corrina Gardner

Heath Wagoner

Christian Svanes Kolding

Brandon Washington

John Maeda Amelia Meena

Brent Arnold

Jenny Olson

Emilie Baltz

Nicole Pivirotto

Abby Covert

Emily Spivak

Benjamin Critton

Gail Steketee

Steven Dean

Becky Stern

Ingrid Fetell

Ajay Revels

Janna Gilbert

John Thackara

Elliott P. MontgomeryÂ Andrew Schloss

To my mom, dad, sister and the rest

Jason Severs

of my family.

Sinclair Scott Smith Rob Walker

To my friends, for still being my friends.

To the rest of the PoD faculty

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One Last Thing One of my most meaningful possessions is a teardrop shaped pendant in a rose gold setting with a bluegreen stone. I was originally given a similar version with a light brown stone, but it always felt less magical to me. The blue-green one actually belongs to my sister. I swapped the two because I believed I would be content wearing the same necklace every day but she would only wear it for a fraction of the time because she had so much jewelry. She was not amused at first, but my argument was strong so she let me have it. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve worn this necklace religiously ever since, unless I thought the necklace might be in danger, like if I go swimming in the ocean or on a hike. On special occasions, I may wear a different one, but for the most part, it is an extension of my body. People are constantly asking me what stone it is, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve never been able to answer the question. To be honest, I never cared. Several years ago, I was in an indoor market in Seattle. I was with my sister and, after shopping around for a bit,

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we found ourselves in an amazing

denim). I took the necklace to an an-

crystal store. The owner was the

tiques jeweler. He took the necklace

closest I might ever come to meeting

from me, put it under a much more

a real wizard. He wore a Canadian

powerful microscope, and handed it

tuxedo and had wiry white hair. He

back to me within seconds.

slowly approached me and asked if he could see my necklace. I was

“It’s glass,” he said.

excited that he wanted to see it, and I thought that I might finally

In a way I was relieved. I was

be able to answer the question I get

relieved that the monetary value,

asked all the time. I removed it from

or lack thereof, had absolutely no

my neck and handed it to him. We

bearing on my love for this thing. I

walked towards the counter where

would never be tempted to sell it and

he pulled out his magnifying glass

I would never be tempted to trade

and began to examine it. He then

it. And now, I could finally answer

placed the pendant under a black

that popular question: “What stone

light and gasped. In one full, deep,

is that?”

and passionate breath, he exclaimed “It fluoresces!” as though I might know what that would imply. He continued by telling me that what I had on my hands was a very special and exquisite stone, possibly a rare sapphire, possibly worth a lot of money. When I returned from my trip to Seattle, I thought it might be wise to get a legitimate appraisal from someone with a bit more credibility (and certainly less

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MFA Products of Design 2015 School of Visual Arts