To Discard or to Accumulate: That is The Question

Tomás Errázuriz; Ricardo Greene; Daniel Berczeller

doi:10.7764/disena.17.182-203

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Published: Aug 28, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.17.182-203

Keywords:

Objetos domésticos, Minimalismo, Acumulación, Consumo, Cultura material Domestic objects, Minimalism, Accumulation, Consumption, Material culture

Tomás Errázuriz

Universidad Andrés Bello, Campus Creativo

Ricardo Greene

Independent Researcher, Santiago, Chile

Daniel Berczeller

Universidad Andrés Bello, Campus Creativo

Abstract

In recent years, minimalist home maintenance trends have gained strength with the well-renown Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo standing out among its ambassadors. Kondo promotes the construction of ideal homes through the evaluation of each domestic object, keeping those that would ‘spark joy’ while discarding the rest. Based on research carried out in Santiago, this article reflects on the various ways in which objects are kept, valued and arranged in Chilean homes. The relevance and pertinence of these new minimalist trends are discussed, since the results suggest that households are more frequently guided by an ethic of care and conservation, valuing the temporal and dynamic condition of their objects, as well as their participation in an ‘ecology of things’.

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How to Cite

Errázuriz, T., Greene, R., & Berczeller, D. (2020). To Discard or to Accumulate: That is The Question. Diseña, (17), 182–203. https://doi.org/10.7764/disena.17.182-203

Issue

No. 17 (2020): Affective-Driven Design: Emotions, Moods and Experiences as Catalysts for Socially Meaningful Design

Section

Original Articles (part 1)

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Author Biographies

Tomás Errázuriz, Universidad Andrés Bello, Campus Creativo

Historian, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), PhD in Architecture, PUC. He is an Associate Professor in the Campus Creativo at Universidad Andrés Bello. He is co-director of Editorial Bifurcaciones; and co-founder of Cosas Maravillosas, a collective that studies and promotes daily practices that circumvent the obsolescence of consumer objects. He researches the relationships between daily life and the environment created in domestic and mobility spaces. His most recent publications include ‘«Till Death Do Us Part»’: The Making of Home Through Holding onto Objects’ (in F. Martínez and P. Laviolette, eds; Repair, Brokenness, Breakthrough: Ethnographic Responses, Berghahn, 2019) and ‘Everything in Place: Peace and Harmony in an Overcrowded Home’ (Visual Communication, Vol. 18, N° 4). He currently leads a Regular Fondecyt project on the relationship between repair, reuse, and affects in the domestic space.

Ricardo Greene, Independent Researcher, Santiago, Chile

Sociologist, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC). MA in Urban Development, PUC. PhD in Anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London. He is editor of the journal Bifurcaciones and Editorial Bifurcaciones, director of the audiovisual platform ‘CinEducación’ and the chrono-photographic project ‘Esto es Talca’. He is a member of the collective Cosas Maravillosas. He addresses issues of urban culture, imagery, domestic employment, elites, racism, experimental cinema, and everyday objects through research. He is the author of Conocer la ciudad (Bifurcaciones, 2018) and En la Vereda (Bifurcaciones, 2016). He recently published ‘Long Live my Objects: Silent Practices to Avoid Obsolescence’ (with T. Errázuriz and D. Berczeller; IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Vol. 503, N° 1). His latest audiovisual piece is The Absence (JAF, 2018).

Daniel Berczeller, Universidad Andrés Bello, Campus Creativo

Designer, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, MA in Journalistic Design, Pompeu Fabra University. He is active in strategic design, cultural management, and teaching. He is the Director of the Graphic Design career at Universidad Andrés Bello. His most recent publication is ‘Long Live my Objects: Silent Practices to Avoid Obsolescence’ (with T. Errázuriz and R. Greene; IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Vol. 503, N° 1). He received the 2016 ‘Sello de Excelencia al Diseño’ from the Chilean Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage, and the Gold Graphics Award in the Theobaldo de Nigris 2013 contest.

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