Rubbish Theory by Michael Thompson

Future Ruins by Michelle Lord via Ballardian

I recently took out the book, Rubbish Theory, by Michael Thompson from the Pratt Library. Thompson looks at the creation and destruction of value in man-made objects, cultural artifacts and ideas. He notes how an object’s economic and/or cultural value diminishes over time rendering the objects worthless or redundant. (This cycle has picked up speed with the advent of consumer culture, our most recent technological gadgets becoming obsolete within 3 years.) The book, written in 1979, looks at how some of these objects then regain value, such as antiques or historic homes. It reminded me of reading Karl Marx’s theory regarding use value during my undergrad degree.

Thompson had a career as a Himalayan Mountaineer, taught at the Slade School of Fine Art and at Portsmouth University’s School of Architecture, worked for an East-West think tank in Austria and recently in 2008 published a new book about cultural theory entitled, “Organising and Disorganising: A Dynamic and Non-Linear Theory of Institutional Emergence and its Implications.” An interview with Michael Thompson from BBC.