Steve Wart @swart@cosocial.ca
Public

The Political Ecology of the Repair Manual

On the plural meanings of repair in architecture, landscape, and urban design, as climate change compels a shift from “building the world” to repairing it. There is no instruction book for what comes next.

I want to look at the repair manual itself. I’m especially interested in manuals that perform a kind of “infrastructural inversion,” calling attention to the techno-social systems that underlie our gadgets and appliances.

placesjournal.org/article/step

An amusingly illustrated guide to How to Fix the LF (Low-Flow? Less-filling?*) Error on your Whirlpool Duet Front-loader Washer The text is arranged in a circular pattern around a hand-drawn image of a washing machine, in a 3D exploded engineering view. Arrows guide the reader through the steps to follow. *This error code is an indicator that not Enuff H2O is flowing into your washer. Here are a few things to check. -> Unhook power + hoses. Test H2O pressure from wall. Top panel removed 3 hex screws. Everyone tells you to check these first: WATER INLET VALVES 1. Unclip wires 2. Disconnect tubes 3. Unhook from Washer 4. Remove and clean Li'l Mesh filter (mine was crusty) WE'RE OUT OF CLEAN UNDERWEAR 5. Reassemble + Reconnect inlet valves. DID THIS FIX the LF ERROR? IT DIDN'T FOR ME! Next try the DRAIN FILTER. Mine was super gross Cleaned it out real good (ugh). But that still didn't fix the LF ERROR! AAAH! A SPIDER!!!! OH, JUST SPIDER RING The 3rd thing to check is the black hose that runs from the top of the machine. WATER PRESSURE HOSE SENSOR! REPLACE IT!!!
Steve Wart @swart@cosocial.ca
Public

A common type of manual in medieval and early modern Europe was the “book of secrets,” collecting recipes and formulas for dying cloth, mixing drinks, preparing medicines, and so forth.

A Manual of Mending and Repairing, with Diagrams (1896), rather than merely offering “recipes for repairing,” provided general principles of application, so “whoever reads [the book] can have no difficulty in mending any object, even though it be not described here.”

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