PAST EVENTS
27 November 2019
Reading Group: COMPOSTING FEMINISMS & THE ENVIRONMENTAL HUMANITIES
Dr Alexandra Crosby led Composting at Sydney University, 4-5:30pm
21 October 2019
Workshop: MAPPING REPAIR: THE WIZARDRY PRECINCT
What repair practices exist in our local precinct? If digital mapping tools obscure repair businesses, can participatory counter-mapping make them visible again?
Workshop Leader: Dr Alexandra Crosby
(Internal UTS research event)
19 October 2019
Workshop: MAKE DO AND MEND: PLAYFUL DESIGN FOR REPAIR
Part of Sydney Craft Week 2019
From trash to treasure, people respond differently to second-hand things, more so when they become broken, damaged or in need of repair. How might design play a role in changing perceptions and attitudes towards these materials? In complex times, can we make do and mend? This event brought together designers, object conservators and the general public for a hands-on workshop exploring playful design for repair.
WHAT: Participatory design workshop
WHO: Workshop led by Dr Katherine Scardifield, and featuring designers & conservators Alia Parker, Emma Peters, Megan Hall (MAAS), and Marty Jay, who worked with public participants to playfully repair or transform their broken things.
WHERE: Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, UTS. Peter Johnson Building,
702–730 Harris Street, Ultimo
2 October 2019
Panel Discussion: CAN WE TALK ABOUT A ‘RIGHT TO REPAIR’ IN AUSTRALIA?
Jesse Adams Stein, Annette Mayne, Guy Keulemans, Leanne Wiseman, John Gertsakis. Photographs by Jessica Lea Dunn
With the increasing public attention given to the ‘right to repair’ campaign in the United States, this panel considered what a ‘right to repair’ might look like in an Australian context. Given Australia’s reliance on imported technologies, and our existing IP and consumer protection laws, how can we encourage repair rather than simply the replacement of broken objects and devices? How do manufacturers’ ‘Technological Protection Measures’ prevent repair and how might this be challenged? Encouraging repair over wastage is an inherently cross-disciplinary problem. With this in mind, this discussion brought together distinct perspectives from design, law, e-waste advocacy, repair advocacy and professional repair. Background information here: ‘Does Australia need the “Right to Repair”?’
WHO: John Gertsakis (Ewaste Watch); Assoc Prof Leanne Wiseman (Griffith University); Annette Mayne (The Reconnect Project); Dr Guy Keulemans (UNSW).
Chair: Dr Jesse Adams Stein, event developed in collaboration with Guido Verbist, The Bower Reuse & Repair Centre.
WHERE: Design Innovation Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, CB15.02.22, 622-632 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
This event was recorded by ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas and you can listen to an abridged recording here.
1 October 2019
Workshop: DESIGN/LAW WORKSHOP: FUTURING REPAIR
This futuring workshop drew upon primary forces of change in the fields of design, repair, administrative law, legal theory, and law tech to flesh out four potential trajectories for our rights to repair. The timescape was determined by research conducted prior to the workshop, identifying major historical shifts in law, design and repair.
Workshop leader: Clare Cooper
Participants: Isabella Alexander; Trish Luker; Leanne Wiseman; Anastasia Zafeirakopoulos; Jane Hogan; Kiran Kashyap; Tom Lee; Jesse Adams Stein.
26 September 2019
Panel Discussion: REPAIR AND OBJECT EXPRESSIONS
As the first event in our Repair.Design 2019 series, this panel explored repair in the context of the different practices that structure the way humans relate to objects. In cultures of abundance, it is perhaps easy to forget or gloss over the deep and complicated enfoldings of objects in human emotional life. Consumer culture is often crudely understood as a process of acquisition and display, but the way humans relate to and express themselves through objects is typically more diverse and subtle. The panel featured a structured discussion with five guests, who told stories about three objects based on the categories of 1) repair, 2) gift, 3) collect, 4) dispose, 5) refuse, 6) design, 7) acquire, 8) destroy and 9) hide. At the conclusion of the panel, members of the audience shared stories based on these categories.
WHO: Alison Page, Andrew Simpson (Vert Design), Catriona Fisk, Simon Von Wolkenstein, Jacqueline Gothe
Chair: Dr Tom Lee
WHERE: Design Innovation Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, CB15.02.22, 622-632 Harris Street, Ultimo NSW 2007
4 September 2019
Workshop: DESIGN’S ROLE IN TRANSITIONING TO FUTURE CULTURES OF REPAIR
Our research team had the privilege of hosting Tristan Schultz at UTS. Tristan ran a participatory workshop for us on Design’s Role in Transitioning to Futures of Cultures of Repair. Tristan is one half of the creative firm Relative Creative, which he runs with Bec Barnett. Relative Creative design communication, strategies and experiences that help people think, talk and mobilise sustainable futures. For this workshop we were joined by Associate Professor Ilaria Vanni Accarigi, Professor Cameron Tonkinwise, and Tim Boykett (Time’s Up).
Repair Design 