Disposability

Speaking about the current state of humanity and what is necessary to reengage our global creativity and regain harmony with our planet, George Nakashima said the following:

“It is a difficult movement, a pioneering movement, similar in a way to that experienced by the early English settlers. The movement involves not only beating back the wilderness but also beating back the soulless urban jungles throughout the world.” 

- George Nakashima

Nakashima sees the 20th century as an era devoid of great humanity. We have conquered the planet, we have developed incredible technology, and we have lost touch  of the simple 

values and the sense of community that are truly important.

In our modern society we have embraced the disposable-permanent object. Disposable in the sense that the objects are created for convenience, created to be used once or twice and then thrown away. Permanent in the sense that they will never decay, that in 10 000 years they will still live on perfectly preserved in the garbage dump. As a society we have created a sense of quality defined by permanence that is in direct contradiction to the way the rest of the natural world works. A tree can live for thousands of years, with some standing now that have witnessed the rise of modern man from the early days of the Greeks. When its grand life is finally finished the tree then falls to the ground. It decays and releases all the energy it stored up over its life, it provides a foothold for new trees and nutrients for these new lives to be nourished by. 

So how do we design for decay? Is the biodegradable cup I get at the gelato store enough? We’ve been staring at ourselves in the mirror for the past hundred years admiring our drive and ingenuity. It now seems that we’re finally starting to peek around at the world again and are seeing how great we actually are.

MB