Infrastructures of Repair

In this seminar we will look into our relationship with the material world in our immediate surroundings, the university campus and the neighbourhood. More specifically, we will delve into our relationship to broken, obsolete and outdated things. What are common and exceptional ways society deals with these things? Are these ways the same in the campus or are there different, perhaps more avant-garde, ways to deal with these relationships? Should they be?

Participants of this seminar are called to cultivate an intimate relationship with a broken, obsolete or outdated thing of their choice and reflect on possible ways to act: to restore it as closely to its original, leave it as it is, recycle it, repair it visibly, redesign it through repair, transform it completely and more. Will there be tensions, broken hearts, tender moments, happy ends?

Compostable material practices and recipes will also be taught in this seminar, such as the “reverse wood” and natural dyeing with plants and compost. Can such materials and hand-craft techniques be used in repairing mass-produced, synthetic-materials-based products?

Infrastructures of Repair is part of a long-term teaching and research project Library of Infrastructures. The Library will be organized in themes such as: Repair, Energy, Care, More-Than-Human-World.