Our Obsession with Newness and Novelty
As I took a left turn from the main road, I felt as though I had entered another world. The
bustling sounds of buses and cars waned into a rhythmic clatter of crickets. The cool breeze
tunnelled by the tall bamboo trees lining up the road rejuvenated me with a dose of fresh air.
It felt great to not stare at a screen and enjoy the moment. At the end of the road, an
expanse of still water perfectly mirroring the orange sky welcomed me. This was the start of
a peaceful escape in the city centre: The Perandoor Canal Walkway. As I walked ahead on
the brick-paved walkway encroached by vegetation, to my right the view of the canal got
distorted into small hexagonal glimpses by the 12ft high green mesh fence resurrected inbetween. It was a step to prevent illegal waste dumping, but a sore sight for the eyes. A set
of rusty benches sat dilapidated along the path with layers of dust piled on top waiting for the
rain to cleanse them. It was inhabited except for a young man in a hoodie, engrossed in his
phone. Abandoned dinghies stood barely afloat swaying with the slow breeze, while a fishing
net formed the foundation of a heap of trash. Upon close inspection, I was intrigued when I
found a red phone with a cracked screen, a keyboard with no visible defects and a bunch of
earphones and chargers along with the common single-use plastics. I stood surprised,
wondering how trash, especially electronic waste, had found its way to an embodiment of
nature.
The desolate state of the walkway and the recent launch of dozens of similar infrastructure
projects by the government, signify a greater issue. When a project is launched and
inaugurated, there is much attention and media coverage while the continuous maintenance
of the project is given the least importance. There’s always excitement for something new,
but the fire dies out soon. In juxtaposition, I also noticed that this behaviour is prominent in
other fields specifically in electronics and fashion. This insight led me to ask the question:
How does the goal of sustainable development align with our obsession with newness rather
than maintenance?
“Why the design industry is obsessed with newness”, by Fred Nicolaus, the executive editor
at Business of Home, analysed the evolution of the desire for new amongst fabric
manufacturers. Historically fabric manufacturers used to have a bi-annual release of
designs. However, due to a saturated and competitive market, many fabric houses have
ramped up their rate of new releases as “if you don’t put out anything new, people tend to
forget” (Nicolaus, 2020). The emphasis on new is clearly visible as recounted by the sales
rep “That’s the first line in any email I send to designers: ‘I have [a] new product’”
(Nicolaus,2020). And commonly the first question people ask a sales rep when the enter a
shop is ‘What do you have that’s new?’.
As the fabric market is very competitive the manufacturers are faced with a dilemma: “If a
brand doesn’t have something new, reps won’t show it. But if a brand has too much new, it’s
spending dearly to develop a product that’s competing for a very narrow slice of attention”
(Nicolaus,2020). This depicts a fine line between efficiency and inefficiency in a general
market. The manpower and resources required to come up with a new line: is it worth it?
And even the “new stuff gets reps an appointment. But designers don’t always buy it”
(Nicolaus,2020).
This inefficiency in the market is currently fought with making subtle changes to the old
designs. “New, really, isn’t an objective quality. It’s just a funny little wrinkle in our brains that
gets us excited about things we haven’t seen before (or think we haven’t seen before)”
(Nicolaus,2020). These minute changes in detail, brands the old product as ‘new’. And that
branding is the first step to a successful design. “Newness is now a spice, not a meal.”
(Nicolaus, 2020)
We can see that once the fabric manufacturers increased the number of releases per year,
the market was heading to greater inefficiency. The realisation that branding a product as
new was more important than manufacturing something new from scratch, helped the
market evolve into being more sustainable while catering to the desire of new of the public.
The Ted talk, “Low Maintenance: Why Our Obsession with Innovation is a Problem” by Tom
Roach, a professor at Bryant University gives another perspective of the desire for new by
relating it to our excessive celebration of innovation. He stresses on the fact that we always
celebrate innovation and devalue maintenance. He explains it by considering the three main
costs of innovation.
Firstly, he argues that “innovation is not only coincidental with our neglect of maintenance,
[but] it actually enables our neglect of maintenance” (Roach, 2018). The analogy of Boston’s
transit system and the upcoming innovation district in Boston proves his case. The funds
used for maintaining the Boston transit system was diverted to attract innovative
corporations to the innovation district using tax incentives and other benefits. While new
headquarters and buildings popped up in the city, thousands of daily commuters were
affected by the delays and shutdowns of the transit system. New projects have the ‘wow’
factor that gains the attention of the public. This has resulted in countries focusing on visual
development and disregarding the need to maintain the crucial aspects of a city. The visual
development also gives an impression to the public that the government is executing their
vision. However, the cost of not maintaining is far more than the profit of new development in
the point of view of sustainability.
Secondly, he states that “Where innovation thrives so does social inequality” (Roach, 2018).
With the incoming of innovation, the wealth gaps between the rich and poor have gotten
worse. He explains it using the example of San Francisco, California, which is a huge centre
for innovation and home to many millionaires and as many homeless people. He
emphasized that it had become unsustainable for a part of the local population to continue
living in their home state.
Lastly, he asserts that “Innovation has become doublespeak for more capitalism at any cost”
(Roach,2018). This innovation frenzy, the want for novelty have not led us to truly innovative
solutions. Also, Innovation or being an entrepreneur is very sought after by the youth of
today. However, their purpose is mainly capitalistic in nature and not truly innovative. For us
to improve our stance on sustainability, there is a need for impactful solutions that can start
with maintenance.
Nicolaus and Roach agree that it is an innate behaviour to be obsessed with novelty. This
affirms that fact that we do need newness and change in this world. However, we must do it
in a way that is less wasteful and dividing. Development will continue to happen, and we
need impactful innovations to the lead us to developing sustainably. Nevertheless, it should
not be at the expense of maintenance, because something that is new and innovative today
will become something that needs maintenance one day. So, if we focus on innovation as a
tool to keep jumping into the future, we may forget to maintain the foundation of it all. Finally,
as innovation paves the way for obsolescence (Roach, 2018), we need to find the balance
between obsolescence and innovation in order to have a sustainable future. More
specifically, a balance where obsolescence is not a component of consumerism and
innovation is not solely a capitalistic venture.
References
1. Why the design industry is obsessed with newness, Fred Nicolaus, Business of Home,
September 2nd 2020.
https://businessofhome.com/boh/article/the-new-new
2. Low Maintenance: Why Our Obsession with Innovation is a Problem (TEDxBryantU), Tom
Roach, 2018.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBMOaj7WBpA