HSOC-284: Life Without Objects

Concerns about the economic and ecological sustainability of industrial design converge around the status of the object itself, raising questions about whether design must generate objects at all. But how might product designers create a life without objects? Using historical and contemporary sources, this course will examine a series of transdisciplinary case studies to help students explore this question. Course materials will include current dialogues around anthropogenic climate change, historical and contemporary reactions against mass production, discourses of decluttering, corporate minimalism, zero waste lifestyles, and the politics of repurposing. The goal of this course is to help students engage critically with the social, political, economic, and ideological implications of a product-centered society, and grapple with the ethical concerns around designing and making in a world full of stuff.