03 — Designing a System, Not an End Product

Who decides what material is worth?

Patchwork System is not only about developing a new material. We are interested in designing the system around it.

Together with researcher Mariana Pereira Silva, we are using ideas from post-growth economics to question some of the assumptions that normally shape the way products are designed, produced and sold.

Does a larger object always need to cost more?
Should labour determine its price?
Should the market decide?
Could care have value?
Could taking responsibility for material be considered a contribution?

Instead of simply selling pieces cut from the Patchwork System tapestry, we call this process material adoption.

The person adopting a piece takes responsibility for keeping that material in use. This creates a different relationship between material, maker and owner.

It also allows us to experiment with different ways of determining value: fixed prices, true-cost pricing, pay-what-you-want, sliding scales, exchange, artistic value or systems in which taking care of a larger amount of material is itself recognised as a contribution.

There may not be one correct model.

That is precisely what we want to investigate.

Instead of asking only what an object should cost, Patchwork System asks what kind of behaviour a system should encourage.