FASHION-able

where the sense of community is as important as the physical building (of for ex-
ample shelter). The community is the basis for social emergence and also a possible
“bank” of assets for the economic enablement of this group. Establishing systems
for better sharing resources is crucial. The community has the assets for getting
micro credits or for establishing an own complementary currency. Here currencies
as the LETS, Local Exchange Trading System, or other forms of Open Money, can
work as ways to facilitate cooperation and help a community regulate informal
trade and also trade with other communities. The crucial issue is to find tools that
enable growth from below for the whole community, rather than moving surplus
up towards the top social strata. This is a problem that constantly occurs with
transaction tools based on scarcity, even LETS. Unfortunately these issues are out-
side the scope of this thesis, but something I would like to return to.

The role of currencies here is to facilitate exchange between partners, but there are
also other forms of regulators of interoperation, and especially one of these tools
can help design work in more networked ways, similar to how Tremayne set up the
guiding procedures for the Swap-O-Rama-Rama. The tool we will take a closer
look at here is the protocols, the designed functions that guide and regulate shared
procedures between collaborators.

designing protocols

For creating the synergies for small change and development Hamdi encourages to
seek “multipliers”, the negligible modifications that creates substantial change.
These multipliers can be acts of moderation or creation of interfaces that become
catalytic processes. It can be social points and projects stimulating convergence, a
soft and dynamic approach instead of building structures. Examples of these small
changes could be moving a bus stop to strengthen local interaction instead of
building another empty community house, or supporting a self-organized recy-
cling method instead of implementing another municipal institution. A multiplier
is in this sense like a catalyst, or intercalary element, that provokes a meeting, in-
serting itself in-between. Drawing on a metaphor from chemistry a catalyst is aid-
ing growth “from within” or “from in between” two chemical substances to facili-
tate interaction and trigger an autocatalytic loop (DeLanda 1997: 62ff & 291f ). It is
a loop not only self-stimulating but also self-maintaining, connecting “mutually
stimulating pairs into a structure that reproduces as a whole” (DeLanda 1997: 62).
It is sustainable because of the low scale engagement, as a “scratching of one’s own
itch” mentality. Designing multipliers and intensifying local forces is a comple-
mentary mode of hybrid co-stimulation, finding converging, empowering opera-
tors and models. It is a designer role of designing methods for reconnecting and
amplifying already existing initiatives and forces, like the “intensifier” role dis-
cussed earlier.

Hence, it is a model of multiplying capacities and accumulative small changes,
“starting where it counts”, with the daredevil design dream of creating a trim tab,
but more often just doing the small effort it is possible to do. The process of the
Swap-O-Rama-Rama could be an example of this where the aim of small change is
to facilitate the formation of a temporary alliance between the visitors and trigger
an emancipatory DIY approach to fashion during the event. Here the design task is
to design the catalytic loop, which is not a simple thing, as many processes must
match and work, not in a forced but in a dynamic harmony. This requires the de-
sign of open standards or coordination tools that delegate creative action spaces

Green Clothing Care labels are

washing labels by Kathleen Dombek-

Keith and part of her green marketing

campaign for changing the way people

launder and care for their clothes. With

simple symbols she aims to make people

rethink the way they wash and decom-

pose their garments. The instructions for

washing are similar to the traditional

ones, but encourages people to “Wash

only When Dirty or Stinky” and to use

“Full Loads”. There are also special

symbols that encourage users to reflect the

after-market life of their garments and

effectively utilize their clothing by means

of Repair, Reuse, Recycle. (Dombek-

Keith 2008)

GREEN CLOTHING CARE

(Design for the back of the shirt)

Wash Only When Dirty or Stinky

Full Loads

Wash Cold

Non-Chlorine Bleach

Hang Dry

Don’t Dry Clean

Repair

Reuse

Recycle