HOW OFTEN DO YOU WASH YOUR HAIR? DESIGN AS DISORDERING:
EVERYDAY ROUTINES, HUMAN OBJECT THEORIES AND SUSTAINABILITY

New objects can create disorder in our lives - particularly when we try to appropriate and make sense of newly developed products that do not fit our routines.  For Ilmonen (2004), the appropriation of goods includes an internalization phase and an externalization phase, through which we cognitively interpret and apply objects in the personal sphere and further develop their shared cultural meanings. Ultimately, through exploring objects' affordances by trial and error, our relationship to them develops into a routinized practice - we no longer reflect on them; they become 'by products' of our lives.  The disorder inherent in the process of appropriation raises the possibility that design might deliberately create a productive ‘disorder’ in routinized practices to facilitate sustainable strategies or 'practices' in everyday life.

This paper argues that to develop more novel strategies for sustainable design, a systematic understanding of everyday practices and routinized behaviour is required - how we live with and consume ordinary things.  A pilot study is presented that inspects the activity of hair care and the human/ object and human/ human relationships that it involves. Drawing on Reckwitz’s (2002) theory of practice, Shove’s (2002, 2003) model of sustainable system innovation and Molotch's (2005) notion of the 'lash up', these are considered as a network of activities, knowledge and material objects which come together to produce a particular set of practices.

The paper presents a case study that used design-led qualitative research methods - text and object probes - to enable people to become aware of and transcend their usual way of thinking and living by 'disordering' their routinized relationships with objects.  In this, the study draws on the tradition of art and design research that Gaver describes as exploring “the cultural implications of design and ways to open up new spaces for design” (1999: p24).  These methods are discussed for their effectiveness in both understanding and opening ways to transcend everyday, routinized practices.  The paper highlights the consequences of a cross-disciplinary approach to sustainable design that uses design research methods in conjunction with theories of human/ object relationships.

References:

GAVER, B., DUNNE, T. and PACENTI, E. (1999). Design: Cultural probes. Interactions, 6 (1), 21-29.

ILMONEN, K. (2004). The use of and commitment to goods. Journal of consumer culture, Vol.4 (1), 27-50.

MOLOTCH, H. (2005). Where stuff comes from: How toasters, toilets, cars, computers and many other things come to be as they are. Routledge.

RECKWITZ, A. (2002). Towards a theory of social practice. European journal of social theory, Vol.5 (No.2), 243-263.

SHOVE, E., (May 2002). Sustainability, system innovation and the laundry [online]. Last accessed on January/27 2006 at URL: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/sociology/papers/shove-sustainability-system-innovation.pdf.

SHOVE, E. (2003). Comfort, cleanliness and convenience: The social organization of normality. Berg Publishers.