THINKING BEYOND THE PRODUCT MOMENT: ADDRESSING ISSUES AROUND “KEEPING”

Abstract

Designing for a more sustainable economy implies consideration for the whole of longer, more optimised product lifetimes. It is increasingly important to encourage reflection on the multiple aspects of product life beyond conception, production and sales moments. This concerns the much longer period when “products” are integrated into everyday life and progressively become “things” and “stuff”. A major part of longer product lives that may currently be overlooked is “keeping”. In circular consumption models’ everyday goods need to be maintained in conditions permitting repurposing, repair and remanufacturing, implying various forms of shorter and longer term keeping. Existing product consumption phases don’t adequately represent the periods of passivity where products are kept awaiting reuse or divestment. While keeping possessions seems inherent in many of the transitions between phases of active use to phases of devaluation and divestment, our attitudes to keeping things are ambiguous. Design and design education traditionally focus on use and rarely on passivity in relations with products or services. In this context, the notion of “keeping” may be useful for encouraging different ways of thinking about our everyday material relations. Part of ongoing research into how issues around keeping might be successfully integrated into design education, two recent case studies are presented and discussed. This research highlights the need to give a more holistic view of the different forms of keeping existing today. Our research also indicates how studying keeping can help sensitise students to everyday aspects of circular and sustainable behaviour.