Meaning of obsolescence, vocabulary.com
Left: Core-glass footed cup, 14th century, Egypt
Right: Sakred collection, Karim Radish
This is an example of the evolution of an everyday object.
"There have been billions of cups since the dawn of time. I cannot reinvent the object but can imbue it with contemporary poetics." cit. Karim Radish
Mobile phone timeline
On the top, an explanatory image oh the evolution of the mobile phone.
On the bottom left, the Motorola Razr 2003;
On the bottom right, Motorola Razr foldable 2020: new technologies and materials made Motorola designers being able to upgrade the design that became a status symbol back to 2003
Of course, the wheel. This is the oldest ever found, in Ljublijana, Slovenia, dated 3200 B.C.
It's impressive to think that the design of the wheel hasn't changed that much after millennials, but i found another variant of it: Goodyear's spherical tyre
This new model of wheel change shape based on how its sensors detect on which kind of road it's running on. It can even rotate horizontally, diagonally, using magnetic fields to let the car levitate over the wheel. Genious.
Is the traditional wheel about to become obsolete?
EU act for planned obsolescence
In the book "Designing for zero waste" by Steffen Lehmann, there's this chapter explaining that the main problem in creating a society that cares about "how to buy" is truly consumer society.
This is explained in another book too: Understanding planned obsolescence. in this case, the author explains the evolution of society in relation to the environment.
The evolution of the plane
When an invention becomes necessary, or convenient, its development can lead to great results in a relatively short time.
References from Design chronicles, Carroll M. Gantz
Museum of london
The history of inventions start on the palaeolithic when our ancestors started working stones to make tools that would help them to feed.
Then they got passionate and they crafted multipart tools.
On that era, tribes were fighting for the ownership of convenient areas (ref. Understanding Planned Obsolescence by Kamila Pope). Hunting weapons helped our ancestor to feed and defend the rest of the tribe.
Here, a great example of a blade made to kill.
Later on, we get to the Roman era: they had already invented the chain which they were using to tie prisoners, but also to attach animals on carts instead of using ropes. An invention still used nowadays.
Wax seal was commonly used by powerful people to seal their letters. Today is a practice used only by a small percentage of users, mostly nostalgics.
The Museum of London is a showcase of objects that, even if designed differently, are still commonly used, thus immortal products.
Design Museum: Graphene
Smartphone: Batteries in smartphones are made from lithium-ion due to its light, reactive and rechargeable properties. However, mining and processing lithium can lead to leaks of toxic chemicals. Graphene, on the other hand, can be fabricated in laboratories and is the most conductive and strongest material in the world. It could contribute to creating super-efficient batteries and robust touchscreens.
(Description of Graphene-based smartphone)
Graphene is one of those new materials that will evolve an obsolete product. Another particularity of this element is that it can be easily processed with 3D printers; once again, we can evolve the way we make things.
From Decades by C. Silver and R. DiLiberto
Leopard trend has come back (1950 - 2019)
Even in fashion, designers revive designs of the past.
From the book "The Gandhara style and the evolution of Buddhist art", the woman figure above was made around the 2nd century.
Looking at the second image we can easily notice how the passage of the years has affected the style of the work done.
Giving questions to Jo. (and the objects she uses the most)
The book is the longest-lasting product of all. Even though paper degrades in 2-6 weeks.
Football table (or Futbolín), invented by Alejandro Finisterre, patented in 1937. It's a product that is mostly used in pubs, as it became a symbol of pubs entertainment.
"The Castle", which was a water pumping station owned by The New River Company has become obsolete when diesel engines and electric pumps spread out the market.
After years residents and historical associations made possible to give this building a Grade II* listing, and in 1993 it has been converted in a climbing centre.
Fatconomy by Robert Johnson.
Found at the Design Museum, this is a new multi-purpose material made out of Fat, which has been used to develop packaging, aprons, croc shoes and cable ties.
What about reusable bottles?
Remi - Mp3 player
In the article of "works that work" the writer talks about the quality of the products when they were made before this century. It's true: products were made to last for a long time. They were more expensive though, nowadays everyone can get a product; the cheap version might be made with less attention for details and materials, but at least the majority of the population have access to that. Also, the difference between the youth and the old gets wider every year, so developing a long-lasting product could be dangerous for the business in a world that changes so fast.
From the book "Products that last". The following graph describes the lifecycle of a product. It's easy to see there's coherence with the definition of obsolescence as it looks like this graph shows the four stages of man. Though, I would like to make a little change: the kid (Introduction), the teenager (growth), the adult (maturity) and the elder (decline).
The next graph shows which category of design is included in each sector of time of the lifecycle of a product.
Left: classic straight razor, designed by Benjamin Huntsman in 1740
Right: Minimal straight razor, Morrama designs
It' meant to convince new generations to avoid disposable razors. Straight razors have always been durable therefore sustainable (as it doesn't produce waste), but might be the time to evolve a design that has kept its original shape through the decades.
Calculator evolution
When designers make an iconic product like this calculator by Braun consumers and experts could think that it's an object destinated to last forever. Though, digital products actually reduce the waste and price to zero.
This is such a great example of how far we can improve our lives and improve the way we interact to the planet earth.
The clock of the long now
Danny Hillis has developed a clock that will last for 10.000 years with minimal maintenance and interruption which use the change of temperature between day and night. Pretty impressive, right? We can a prototype at The Long Now Museum in San Francisco.
Reference in the book "Products that last", C. Bakker, M. den Hollander, E. van Hinte, Y. Zljlstra
U.S. Environment Protection Agency
Here, reports about goods waste.
Products that became obsolete in a relatively short time:
Slide projector: I was amazed by this object whenever my teacher was bringing it in class, now it looks so useless to me as we have the electronic version of it.
Floppy disk: I remember when I was using it, now if you show it to the generation Alpha (those born after 2010) they will reply "is that a 3D printed Save icon?"
The fax machine: symbol of obsolete machine
Pictures are taken from Bestlifeonline.com
From "the art of inventions: Leonardo and the renaissance engineers"
Parachute from Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo Da Vinci spinning wheel to sweep away assailants, it became the helicopter propeller
Turnbuckle
Some more photos from the Museum of London
Design Museum
Water bottles quickly became famous to be one of the products that create waste the most.
Funny though, as there is Roberto Mercadini (engineer, writer and YouTuber) explaining that water bottles can actually be reused (the cause of water bottle waste is the misuse of it) in its video "Answers to "Can plastic be reused?".
Design Museum: 3D Printers
Formlabs Form2: This SLA printer (Stereolithography) use a photochemical process to harden layers of resin and give a model with layers of 0.0254 mm of thickness. It's mostly used to make dental prosthesis.
Personally I think of this machine as a technology destined to become obsolete in 5-10 years as there already are more performing and advanced alternatives (for instance, SLS printers use dust and are way quicker).
Travelling in Light by Peter Max, 1971 (First plate)
The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 (Second plate)
Same topic, different style, different century. Surroundings affects our creativity and influence our style.
From the book "500 necklaces"
This Lori Weisenfeld's piece is inspired by the style of ancient necklaces, made in 2005.
I think it's nice to valorise historical well-done pieces. We should learn from whose came before us and then do our own.
Giving questions to EL
Giving questions to David. (and its most used object, his wallet)
Traditional taxi vs Uber
How come traditional taxi are not obsolete yet?
IQOS electronic cigarettes, trying to make traditional straight cigarettes obsolete
Moka coffeemaker invented by Alfonso Bialetti in 1933.
I have been using this indestructible pot for years. The only thing that can be accidentally broken are the plastic parts, but the product, in general, can last forever.
Fairphone 2 by Bas Van Abel and Fairphone in 2016.
This is a smart way to develop smartphones: the components are built by modules, so if the phone is not working the user can easily fix it by simply swapping the broken part with a new one. By developing phones in this way, the materials used for production becomes more reliable and easier to recycle while increasing the lifespan of a smartphone.
Normally, the lifespan of a newspaper is one day (as it is updated every day).
So we see a huge amount of newspaper waste every day.
Nowaday the ink used can be organic, so the real problem I see here is just that all the paper produced is meant to become waste. Time for another material that is cheaper and quicker to degrade compared to normal paper?
Megha - Cassette and CD
Lin - windows games and buttons
Philippe Stark is right too, we need to increase the life of the product. Planet earth is not a trash bin.
Apple's investors are being educated: they loved to make profits but looks like everyone forgot about the impact their business would have had to the planet. Stimulating consumerism over a product made with materials that can actually last for a really long time, through continuous upgrades, it's a very dangerous move.
I'm glad Apple decided to change the design of their product (ref. "The death of the Iphone", Dezeen) even though iPhone 12 is being released and I'm worried they don't actually have been applying what they affirmed on the article. When is Apple going to apply Fairphone's design on their products?
Losing Your Marbles by Charlotte Moneypenny (from Central Saint Martins).
In this project, Charlotte implemented this timeless childhood game (the cat eyes marble in the labyrinth) in the glassware stimulating memories to the user and, doing so, creating an emotional attachment.
The two main things that help developing an emotional attachment are the following: memories and enjoyment. What comes up to my mind is the choice of the product intended for the adult part of the user, a glass for alcohol: we drink to celebrate, to entertain, to forget about bad happenings and -sadly- because we are addicted. A drunk person is a child, so putting a child game together with an "adult game" is, on my point of view, the greatest combination if you want the user to remember the past. In this way, the designer created a product that creates a relationship with the user so he hopefully thinks to not throw it in the bin.
https://www.dezeen.com/2009/06/24/losing-your-marbles-by-charlotte-moneypenny/
Even in a national emergency, leaving disposables all over the streets is easier than wait to get to the bin.
The worst thing is that these products are potentially infected.