Vintage Repairability

Mentor: Jeff Love, j.s.love@tudelft.nl

Problem / Issue to investigate: Repairability is slowly becoming a default requirement for the machines and devices we own, but can we also give new life to older things? Platforms such as IFIXIT (https://www.ifixit.com/) and the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/manuals?tab=collection) now host a vast collection of user manuals. What can we do with all of these to make repair of everyday objects easier for people?

Goal: Your assignment will be to investigate how to harvest information
from digital archives of repair manuals and translate them into actionable
information. Is there something missing? Should we enhance these in some way? Should they be more interactive or connect to other things?

Methods: You will have free choice over the methods you use, though we expect some kind of digital image and text harvesting and interface prototying will be part of your work. You will also likely conduct interviews or co-creative sessions with people who repair and tinker.

Impact: You will be expected to develop and execute ideas for making older
objects or devices more repairable, but you are free to choose the type
and your approaches to doing so. Afterwards you will test your methods
in a real-life scenario such as a repair café.

Relevance: The right to repair goods we purchase is a necessity to achieve a circular economy. Empowering people to retain legacy items and care for our older goods can make this transition more meaningful and more accessible to individuals.