Paper short abstract:

This presentation focuses on the trend of repair in Estonia, and its emotional, material and political aims. Based on two case studies, repair of commodities and personally significant things can be understood as maintenance of the social world, which is sometimes challenged by material decay.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation focuses on the reoccurring trend of repair of personal belongings and domestic commodities in Estonia, and its emotional, material and political aims. The empirical material of this research is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a local repair café and an analysis of one recent ethnographic art exhibition in Estonia. Both of these case studies show how people aim to cope with the vibrant matter, material agency, and material decomposition, which, besides the material world, challenges the human social world.

Personal belongings are inherently linked with persons, their biography and social relations. Things and materiality that compose the human socio-material world are often perceived to be permanent and persistent, which affords mnemonic qualities and evoke moments of care. However, in everyday life, things wear, break and decompose. From an anthropocentric perspective, the material world sometimes fails and does not allow human intentions. In a post-human view, materiality has its own life and temporality, and decay is a natural part of the life of vibrant materiality. Decay, as it occurs in the human relationship with objects, affords potential for creativity in repair, and rethinking social relationships and the past.

Decomposition of personally significant things, especially gifts or tangible family heritage, is often perceived as a rupture of social connections and love. Therefore people aim to maintain social relationships and care through repair. Through repair, they maintain their own social and material world, and connection between themselves and previous generations.