Better by design: battling the throwaway culture

From New Scientist

04 January 2007 New Scientist

• Ed Douglas
• Magazine issue 2585

Jonathan Chapman is telling his audience why he took his hi-fi to a marriage guidance counsellor. It was the usual story: lack of communication. Chapman would come home from work and talk about his day, and the hi-fi would just sit there. Sometimes it would play music, but only if he told it to. Chapman doesn't know when it happened, but one morning he woke up and realised he no longer loved his stereo.

This may sound like a stand-up routine, but Chapman was addressing a meeting of top designers in London last year and he was making a serious point. He is fascinated by our relationships with objects, and how these change or fail. "I like the term 'adulterous consumption'," he says. "Relating to our material possessions is parallel to the idea of adultery, of making a commitment to one thing and then quickly becoming distracted by a younger ...