trenchant.org

There’s plenty of lovely blogs and sites on the web about high design, luxury goods, general “product porn.”

While I have no problem admiring Bang and Olufsen equipment or designer furniture, I’m interested in paying attention to the details of things we use all the time. Products and decisions we make that impact us dozens of times a day, that impact the quality of our lives.

And if you’re going to buy a Bang and Olufsen you don’t need my permission or advice anyway. (1)

The objects around us may be mass produced but they need not be disposable commodities evaluated purely on cost and availability. Why surround ourselves with the cheaply made, the unusable, the aesthetically displeasing when there is so much that is good?

So I started a new site about it.

decommodify is applying a theory of decommodification to my life and writing about it.

Observing, critiquing, and expecting more from the products that surround us, and appreciating the details of the excellent.

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(1) And if you did, I already approve. The first stereo reciever I had as a child was an old Bang and Olufsen Beomaster 1900 that my father had long since removed from his stereo system. I didn’t have the context to appreciate it for another decade. I’ve never owned a more elegant piece of stereo equipment.