Restart Podcast Ep. 107: Maintenance: the unsung hero, with Jérôme Denis
We talk a lot about the essential nature of repairing our things. But something we probably don’t talk about enough, is how important it is to maintain our gadgets, as well. You might say, “well, aren’t they one in the same?” The answer to that question is complicated. In this episode, Ugo is joined by Jérôme Denis, Director at the Centre for the Sociology of Innovation at Écoles des Mines de Paris and co-author of the book, The Care of Things: Ethics and Politics of Maintenance. An underground practice Jérôme shares how he became so fascinated by maintenance in the first place. While he and his co-author David Pontille, were undertaking other ethnographic research it was suggested to them that they speak to the maintenance workers who looked after the subway signs that they were so interested in. After that surprise encounter, these acts of care became a new focus. They began to forge a new area of study, with many other scholars and authors which they called ‘maintenance and repair studies’. The culmination — in part — is their book. Jérôme tells us that, like many people, he used to use ‘repair’ and ‘maintenance’ almost interchangeably. As time went on though, he began to see their key differences. “What we were not at ease with was the idea of the repair of the ocean, of humanity, of climate, you know, fixing stuff in a heroic way. It’s a quite masculine way generally of seeing things, but it’s also an event. The idea that things are broken, then we will repair them, and then it’s okay. We don’t have to bother anymore since the next breakage. So this is where the main difference is: maintenance is every day and once you have maintained something, well, you still have to maintain it.” They are not the same but they are also not in opposition to each other. Instead, he believes that repair should be seen as part of broader maintenance practices. Credit: Jérôme Denis Invisible by design? One of the complexities of maintenance is the juxtaposition between its essential nature and the fact that its invisibility is part of its point. If maintenance practices are successful, hopefully, there will rarely be a breakage that warrants attention. The issue is that this means the work of maintainers often goes unnoticed and therefore, unsupported by designers, legislators, funders and more. Jérôme points out that breakdowns — like that of the Ponte Morandi bridge collapse — can be much more easily dramatised. The same applies to their subsequent repair, whereas ‘you don’t get a ribbon each time you just look at something to see if it’s still okay.’ This attention-grabbing event of breakdown, he says, also makes campaigning for a right to repair easier than asking for support for maintenance. “Maintenance is not invisible in many places, in many poor places in rich countries and in many places in poor countries…I think it’s important to situate when and where maintenance is made or rendered invisible or neglected, or where the work of women is rendered invisible or neglected. It’s not everywhere.” We ask Jérôme if he thinks that maintenance has been rendered invisible and he says no, rather he believes that it has been neglected, in our present and in documentation on the history of science and innovation. He shares many reasons that he believes it has been so neglected, ultimately, relating back to the idea of reproductive labour — a term comprehensively explored by artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles who appears on the cover of the French version of the book. A dance of emancipation We journey through how the de-prioritisation of maintenance came as a result of modern capitalism: how consumers were sold comfort and freedom through items that ‘didn’t need to be maintained’ (though, this wasn’t true). We also talk about the dichotomy of repair, maintenance, and durability, how innovators are constantly trying to create autonomous things and materials that don’t require maintenance, and how ultimately this is an impossible feat. He points out that even when we are told that things are self-sustaining, there will always be someone who bears the brunt of maintaining them, just without the support and infrastructure to undertake the task. “It’s also an emancipation from the manufacturers and a huge industry that, in a way, tries to put you in a very specific place of a freed consumer who doesn’t have to take care of anything, but who then cannot learn from their use, who cannot learn from how things work, and who cannot, for instance, innovate from specific maintenance or repair practices.” Jérôme explains how he sees maintenance as a dance, an ongoing interaction between thing and person. He says that maintenance requires constant adjustment, to follow the lead of your partner in a process of ‘call and response’. Through maintenance, you can in a way emancipate yourself from modern capitalism, no longer a passive consumer but a person unafraid to interact with and learn about your things. Links Read: The Care of Things: Ethics and Politics of Maintenance by Jérôme Denis and David Pontille Listen: Restart Podcast Ep. 79: eSpares wants you to clean your filters Please fill in our podcast listener survey to help us keep improving this show The post Restart Podcast Ep. 107: Maintenance: the unsung hero, with Jérôme Denis appeared first on The Restart Project.