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thomas.berker @ hf.ntnu.noCentre for Technology and SocietyNorwegian University of Science and Technology

Sustainability and Aesthetics

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Sustainability as matter of concern• Chains of production, distribution, operation, use, and

destruction of the property «sustainability» including– the movement and transformation of (living) things and people (eg

those mapped by LCA/Is)– LCI/LCA's calculations– environmental policies (defining threshold values)– advertisements (reflecting and producing narratives about

sustainability)– ...

• Relational: depending on every link of the chain

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Aesthetics or Sustainability?

• Exclusion:Increased aestheticization of goods and services in 'a world of abundance' kills sustainability (eg Dobers and Strannegård 2005)

– increased interest for design (less interest in “use value”)– accelerated product cycles because of– branding and lifestyle consumption– destroying the property “sustainability”

• Re-configuration:Aesthetics is but one of many aspects informing design and consumption choices

– similar to “comfort, cleanliness and convenience” (Shove 2003) aesthetics has been neglected in analyses of systems of provision

– unit of analysis: historical and ongoing (re-)configurations of material flows, aesthetics, policies, calculations

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Our Cases

• A warm bath: High energy aesthetics?

• A second chance? Aesthetics and sustainability in the Norwegian second home commodity chain.

• Pleasure boat commodity chain: Different boats, different pleasures, different ecological impact?

• Educating aesthetic sustainability: Industrial design as link between aesthetics and sustainability?

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Grateful for any input:

helen.gansmo @ hf.ntnu.no

thomas.berker @ hf.ntnu.no

http://kultwiki.net/dacs