Love this one Diana, and I also find myself wondering if we could extend the idea of repair further. I love what's called "visible mending" when textiles or other objects are repaired in a way that doesn't hide the repair. Maybe there are example of this in cities too--where we use what's already there, adaptive reuse, etc.? The Highline, for example, feels akin to visible mending.
Yes the Japanese call it kintsugi - similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, “ embracing of the flawed or imperfect.[Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear from the use of an object,highlighting cracks and repairs as events in the life of an object, rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage”.
I think the biggest point here is that attempts at repair are always met with resistance, and our country has completely forgotten how to disagree productively.
This means that simple conversations about things like building new housing in increasingly expensive cities devolves into accusations about gentrifiers and greedy property developers (from the left) and fear mongering about "those people" and changes to neighborhood characters (from the right).
Both angles of conversations (from people resisting change) trend towards violent and exclusionary. "If you disagree with me you're a monster".
So it doesn't surprise me that people advocating for change end up feeling backed into a corner where violence is the only way out.
I think the case of Califonia Forever is illustrative of this. I see Califonia Forever as people who tried to repair SF being forced out of the city and demoralized to the point of giving up and trying elsewhere by the stiff resistance given by the power structures in SF.
But, I think you're right overall that the people at large want to see repair. The case of NYC congestion pricing and Phillip Eng fixing the MBTA show just how much public support can be brought to bear for repair.
But, this can also go the other way. The Big Dig left Boston deeply cynical about infrastructure projects after it was portrayed as a boondoggle by the media (similar to what's happening with CHSR).
Freeman Dyson said that it was easy to sell weapon development but not defense because weapons were “technically sweet” and defense was not. A weapon is a nifty, ingenious device, but defense is pain-staking, error prone, and invisible in the end. I wonder if part of the problem is that repair isn’t “technically sweet”.
Such a great article Diana. I also think as women have drawn independence rising in roles that often by nature of who we are, draw solutions, it has unintentionally created a backlash of emasculation . In a power play, Trump draws those to a mounting devaluation of ethics, repair through distrust and destruction. I don’t mean to get off track or to be dim., change requires foresight and a progressive attitude. We are in a moment in our history, entering what might become degressive. It would be interesting to create a wave of repair.
Love this one Diana, and I also find myself wondering if we could extend the idea of repair further. I love what's called "visible mending" when textiles or other objects are repaired in a way that doesn't hide the repair. Maybe there are example of this in cities too--where we use what's already there, adaptive reuse, etc.? The Highline, for example, feels akin to visible mending.
Ooh, I love that. Yes, I think adaptive reuse is a great example of this repair framework.
Yes the Japanese call it kintsugi - similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, “ embracing of the flawed or imperfect.[Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear from the use of an object,highlighting cracks and repairs as events in the life of an object, rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage”.
Ps the highline is a great example of Kintsugi mending.
Thank you, Suzan! Love having you bring in your expertise as a fiber artist to this one.
I think the biggest point here is that attempts at repair are always met with resistance, and our country has completely forgotten how to disagree productively.
This means that simple conversations about things like building new housing in increasingly expensive cities devolves into accusations about gentrifiers and greedy property developers (from the left) and fear mongering about "those people" and changes to neighborhood characters (from the right).
Both angles of conversations (from people resisting change) trend towards violent and exclusionary. "If you disagree with me you're a monster".
So it doesn't surprise me that people advocating for change end up feeling backed into a corner where violence is the only way out.
I think the case of Califonia Forever is illustrative of this. I see Califonia Forever as people who tried to repair SF being forced out of the city and demoralized to the point of giving up and trying elsewhere by the stiff resistance given by the power structures in SF.
But, I think you're right overall that the people at large want to see repair. The case of NYC congestion pricing and Phillip Eng fixing the MBTA show just how much public support can be brought to bear for repair.
But, this can also go the other way. The Big Dig left Boston deeply cynical about infrastructure projects after it was portrayed as a boondoggle by the media (similar to what's happening with CHSR).
Freeman Dyson said that it was easy to sell weapon development but not defense because weapons were “technically sweet” and defense was not. A weapon is a nifty, ingenious device, but defense is pain-staking, error prone, and invisible in the end. I wonder if part of the problem is that repair isn’t “technically sweet”.
Such a great article Diana. I also think as women have drawn independence rising in roles that often by nature of who we are, draw solutions, it has unintentionally created a backlash of emasculation . In a power play, Trump draws those to a mounting devaluation of ethics, repair through distrust and destruction. I don’t mean to get off track or to be dim., change requires foresight and a progressive attitude. We are in a moment in our history, entering what might become degressive. It would be interesting to create a wave of repair.