Recycling: adding value by adding meaning

This reminds me of a scene from David Mamet’s “State and Main”. The hinge on a character’s glasses breaks (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Another character (Rebecca Pidgeon), using her small-town ingenuity, fixes the hinge with a bit of fishing line and a cigarette lighter. “Look at that, good as new,” he says.

She replies, “Better than new because now it has a story.”

This connects with the Trobriand Islanders practice of Kula, items are exchanged around the islands and become more and more prestigious the more people who have owned them and via connection with great narratives.

Jutta Malmic has written an amazing book on it, much more accurate than the earlier anthropological efforts (I know this because I’ve been there and discussed books with the islanders).

Spot on, Grant. I’ve posted this reading to my current course on “the simple life” in America. And here’s a lagniappe for you in return: my own story about a recycled object. http://nicewhitelady.blogspot.com/2009/05/marybeth-jacket-true-story.html

Have ya’all heard the story of the Ebay “rad to the power of sick” BMX? Awesome case for the value of narrative in used goods dealing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd6-n7MhVg8&feature=player_embedded

But of course this is fabricated narrative, and once consumers catch on to such fabrication, it eventually loses value. So how to keep it real? I sense the only stories of real value those told from one person to another.

Great reflection, Grant,

It inspired me to remember initiatives to capture and share such stories around objects (dollar bills and books, in particular). And it also made me think about a huge opportunity in arts and culture to attach a narrative to an object — the theater seat or the theater ticket to that seat.

Take a look:
http://tinyurl.com/yjn9pry

Andrew

one time I’ve interviewed one young men here in Brazil for a shoes research about the meanings of his favorites ones. One of them, he had bought in a garage sale in San Diego, when he was living there for 6 months (middle and upper class brazilians normally travel to US-California or Australia to work in bars, construction, baby sitters, etc for short period of times). I asked him why he had bought this used shoes for 1 dolar in a garage sale, and he said that the other owner probably have made a very good use on the shoe. Why? because it was tainted with an old paint in one corner, and was very used, even with holes. In his idea, this meant that the other owner have experienced very good time with it, and probably he also will have good experiences while using it.

In psychotherapy, the emerging narrative gives shape to emerging meaning. In organizations, the meaning making narrative shapes vision.

But objects present a big hurdle. Most of us generate personal narratives about the people who are most significant to us; and then we “miss” who they genuinely are because we have cast our narratives upon them.

We do the same thing with material objects in our world: those “must haves” that ultimately disappoint because our own projected narrative doesn’t come close to what the object delivers (dare I call this the object’s “self”?)

Unfortunately, the objects don’t have a voice: and our stories about them must be curated: like Andrew Taylor’s suggestion about theatre seats above— and that curation itself is not the object’s narrative, but the narrative of the object’s user.

Just a few observations about increased product value for “used” products and products’ narratives. Two categories of products come to mind as growing in value because of the narratives associated with them – though (sorry Grant) the products themselves don’t communicate the stories directly.

Very highly prized “classic” automobiles are the ones that are not simply old, rare, and in pristine condition. The ones that have a story are valued above all. If: retrieved from rural barn, won a race, owned by a famous person, or “acted” in a film, the assigned value skyrockets. While the car itself doesn’t tell the story, “documentation” is essential to proving the narrative and the value.

Musical instruments are the other category where the narrative of the instrument makes an enormous difference. Who played it, its use in memorable performances and the like assure substantial value. Again, it’s not merely the age or rarity of the item.

Finally, I don’t think that the products need to have been designed or produced so as to achieve better performance over time. From my two examples, I’m taking away the notions that there is a high aesthetic quality and absolute performance quality that characterized these products when they were first sold. You could actually argue, correctly, that contemporary products have better absolute performance qualities than the highly valued “classics.” As for how classics are viewed aesthetically now, versus then, is probably best left to the eye of the beholder.