Using the Implosion Method to Explore Everyday Objects
Everything, even everyday objects, have stories. Asking the right questions helps us understand the world around us more deeply.
Take a look at where you are right now. What kind of objects do you see? If Maybe you see a wallet, a hairbrush, and a smartphone. Maybe you see a park bench, a lamp post, or a gum ball machine. These objects probably look very familiar to you, so much so they fade into your periphery and you don’t think twice about them.
But, how well do you know them really? Do you know how they were invented, or for what reason they were invented? Do you know what they’re made of? Do you know where those materials come from?
Curious about this idea, I took a class at NYU called Learning the World, One Thing at a Time, taught by Lydia Jessup. The title is inspired by a blog post by Joe Dumit, a professor of anthropology at UC Davis, called WRITING THE IMPLOSION: Teaching the World, One Thing at a Time.
The purpose of this class was to learn the Implosion research method to deeply analyze and research an object we encounter in every day life.
You might be thinking, “Ok, but what’s the point of doing so, especially for an object we’re all already familiar with?”
Sounds like a basic question, but let’s ask a follow-up: how familiar are we really with objects we use in everyday life?
Every Object has a Story and Lifecycle
The world we live in today is more complex than ever before. Many scholars and thinkers of our time are deeply examining how we produce and use objects today versus in the past.
Donna Haraway, a scholar in many intersecting fields such as ecofeminist theory and technology, wrote a book called Staying with the Trouble that explores the art of creation, and human relationships with non-humans. That is, how do we create and interact with other species, objects, and our earth? How do our actions affect our world around us? Or as she likes to ask, how can we reconfigure the human relationship with the earth and its inhabitants?
Similarly, geographers Josh Lepawsky and Max Liboiron wrote Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power, which takes a deep dive into the systems that surround our every day practices of using utilities we take for granted, like our electrical grid, recycling, and garbage programs. It dives into subjects such as the pollution caused by recycling and how much money is spent to reuse. Most of us will gladly place items in recycling bins or turn on a light switch without much thought, but what effect does it really have?
In addition to these side effects of production and use, we can also look at anthropological and historical aspects of objects and systems.
The obvious choice is the history of the object: who invented it, why was it invented, how expensive was it, what did it look like, and so on. The less obvious choice is not only exploring its beginnings, but also its decay.
There is an idea of a technological hype cycle, created by the Gartner Group. It introduces the idea that new media, or in our case objects, follow this cycle on a graph plotting hype and usage against time. The idea is that the newly invented and released will spike in adoption by early adopters that champion the object, then it will live a commodity phase where its usage plateaus, and finally it enters an archaeology phase, where it becomes Zombie Media and either is replaced, rarely used, or only used by hobbyists:
So with these ideas, we can finally jump into The Implosion Method.
Quick and Dirty Guide to the Implosion Method
The implosion method was pioneered by Donna Haraway on the very ideas just discussed. An object has its own lifecycle and story, and we can to begin to uncover it by researching across 14 dimensions:
Labor
How was it produced and who is involved in it production? Where and how does this happen? How is it used or how is using it seen as labor?
Professional
How is knowledge of the production and use of this object professionalized? What kinds of professionals or institutions are involved regarding its development, production, use and regulation?
Material
What materials are involved in its production and maintenance? Where have these materials come from and how are they disposed of?
Technological
What kinds of technologies and machines enable it to be produced and maintained? Who has access to these machines and technologies and what are their histories?
Context
Where and how does it appear in the world? What can be found around it? What activities or ways of life enable one to come across it? Who is it for (Who is the audience? Who is excluded)?
Political
What kinds of local, national and international organizations claim jurisdiction or play a part in regulating it? What kind of legislation or political discourse surrounds it? What political history or power structures is it involved in?
Economic
How is it marketed, purchased, consumed? Where and by whom? What kinds of capital, debt, credit, risks and labor relations are involved in this process? How is it part of the world marketplace?
Textual
What texts are on, associated or related to it? Who writes these texts and who reads them? What does the text mean?
Bodily
What kinds of bodies (human and nonhuman) are related to it, make use of it or produce it? How do these interactions relate to or embody gender, race, ability and other group identifications? What forms of attention, emotion and cognition are involved?
Historical
What is the history of its invention (when and by whom)? Are there different and competing versions of its histories? Who tells or owns these histories?
Particle
How can the object be divided up or broken down into its smallest units? What are its parts? What are its stages?
Educational
When did we learn about it in school? During the rest of life? What do we learn about it and what is the history of its teaching? How much do we learn about it?
Mythological
What roles does it play in fantasies? How does it appear in entertainment? What other narratives, stories, and strong associations involve it (ex: joy, fear, science, parenthood, death, sports)?
Symbolic
What are the ways it is used as a symbol? What sorts of ideas, metaphors, movements and ideologies are associated with it? How is this part of a larger system or history? For whom is this relevant and by whom is this debated?
Creating a Gap Map
If we’re following the method exactly we would fill out an implosion method map, by selecting our chosen dimensions, writing what we already know, identifying the gaps we might have, then creating a plan of attack with research.
The Implosion Method implores us to ask two questions about our chosen object:
- How does the object exist in the world?
- How does the world exist within the object?
You can see a lot of interesting deep dives into the secret life of objects on Object Lessons. Trash Academy also has amazing examples of implosions. Check out these infographics they did for plastic bags:
From doing this exercise, we can better understand the lifecycle and story of our favorite objects. I implore you to try exploring a few dimensions on an object you take for granted and see how your appreciation for it grows!
