Sandra Goldmark: Redefining materialism and reviving the repair economy (ep284)
Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne is a podcast exploring our paths to holistic healing, ecological regeneration, and true abundance and wellness for all. Sandra Goldmark joins us in this episode to discuss:
some overall trends in the repair economy;
three types of “planned obsolescence” driving increased consumerism;
how the act of care, whether for material goods or for people, is vastly undervalued and under-appreciated in our economic system; and more.
Musical feature: Trust The Sun by Irene Skylakaki (IG: @ireneskylakaki, Spotify: Irene Skylakaki)
“When you fix something, it’s intimate: you have to stop, sit down, take it apart, clean it, struggle with it, then put it back together... then it works, it’s satisfying, and you give it back to the customer. It’s a moment of realization that this act of care has disappeared from our society in a weird way.”
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Here’s Sandra on the major types of planned obsolescence:
"Obsolescence exists, and it is designed in. There are whole reams of data about it, and there's a great book about it called Made To Break.
There are also different kinds of obsolescence.
There's progressive obsolescence, meaning that the style has evolved.
The classic example is: You're in the 1950s, and you have a white refrigerator. But all of a sudden, you really feel like you need an avocado green refrigerator. That's designing in a perceived form of obsolescence. ‘My white fridge just doesn’t feel right anymore.’
Technological obsolescence might be, 'My phone doesn't work anymore with these updates; it's slower now. And that's built-in, so I need to get a new phone.'
Physical obsolescence refers to something literally breaking. The classic example is the lightbulb. There's a famous lightbulb that has been burning for over 100 years because it was designed and built to last forever. There's a great documentary called The Lightbulb Conspiracy about how all of the lightbulb companies got together and were like 'this is not a good business model' and literally designed the lightbulb to burn out after a certain period of time.
Obsolescence is definitely a real thing, and it still exists. You see it when you're fixing things—you open them, and you can sometimes just tell that it was made to break."
About Sandra Goldmark:
Sandra Goldmark (Twitter: @SandraGoldmark; Instagram: @SandraGoldmark) is a designer, teacher, and entrepreneur whose work focuses on circular economy solutions to overconsumption and climate change. Her new book, Fixation: How to Have Stuff Without Breaking the Planet, uses a series of objects she fixed in her pop up repair shops to chart a clear path to a more sustainable and equitable pattern of consumption for individuals and businesses. She is an Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Theatre and the Director of Campus Sustainability and Climate Action at Barnard College.
Sandra has designed sets and costumes for theaters around the country, and is a co-author of the Sustainable Production Toolkit, a comprehensive guide for theaters to implement circular and sustainable design and production practices.
In 2013, Sandra founded Fixup (formerly Pop Up Repair) and began operating short term repair shops and educational repair and reuse events around New York City. Receiving press attention in the New York Times, MSNBC, Salon, New York Public Radio, and beyond, Fixup (FB: @FixupRepairNYC) employs local theatre artists, stagehands, and technicians to repair broken household items, and has diverted over 10,000 pounds of goods from landfills. Sandra asserts that our massive, global system of consumption—our use-and-discard culture—is broken. She wants to make it easy for people to take care of what they have, reduce waste from new manufacturing, and create local jobs. Sandra has a BA in American History and Literature from Harvard College, and an MFA in Design from Yale School of Drama.
