Transformative repair: relearning how to fix and reuse things
Xanthe Murphy and Jordan Leeflang + Courtney Jackson & Steve Soeffky converted ‘stuff from a shed’.
Once upon a time people did things like darning, mending and what was generally called ‘fixing things’. Then we learnt how it was much easier to throw our worn and broken objects out and replace them with newer ‘disposable’ ones. The trouble was we also learnt that this new convenient way turned out to be costly in environmental terms.
One weapon in the ‘war on waste’ is Transformative Repair, an Australian Research Council funded research project which looks to find new ways designers can tackle repair and reuse. The project is led by University of South Australia Enterprise Fellow Dr Guy Keulemans, and designer Dr Trent Jansen of UNSW in partnership with craft and design institution JamFactory.
In an irony of the mass production and mass consumption, the things we don’t want are now also a resource. Circular economy is a production and consumption model that involves reusing, repairing, refurbishing or recycling existing materials and products to promote long-term sustainability.
‘Every year in Australia we produce about 70 megatons of waste – that’s nearly 500 Sydney Opera Houses in volume and the waste of household goods is a sizable portion of that’, Dr Keulemans said.
‘Transformative Repair responds to this waste crisis by seeking to find new ways that designers can tackle repair and reuse in their practice, as a service so that clients and customers have more options for prolonging the life of their goods and possessions.’
Melvin Josy and Bolaji Teniola repaired and transformed a Norwegian knitting table.
This year a collection of treasured items were restored by more than 12 designers, artists and craftspeople as part of an innovative arts project illustrating the importance of reuse and repair. Their works were presented in an exhibition which ran from 5 to 21 April 2024 at JamFactory, Adelaide.
The designers and craftspeople tackled the transformative repair of a range of 19th and 20th objects and furniture in different ways. ‘For some designers it was a challenging yet simple process of repair and for other designers they’re really transforming the object, perhaps giving it a new function, a completely new appearance or a new style’, said Dr Keulemans.
You can see links to 12 videos which document these experiences here.
Portraits: Alexander Robertson
More information at: https://transformativerepair.net/