A complex view of laundry

Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])

A complex view of laundry


Laundry


Laundry

Two main meanings: “soiled clothes and place for doing the

wash”


Laundering

Necessary: cleanliness, hygiene


Washing machines

Complex systems: social acceptance

family interactions

health, pride, security


Laundering

Yet, highly absurd means!


18 main steps1) Select and buy new clothes (frequency, type)

2) Increase or replace your wardrobe

3) Designate a storage space (constraints, order)

4) Most items, most of the time remain stored

5) Garment selection is highly circumstancial

6) After wearing, decision-making to be cleaned or reuse (smell beats stains)

7) Dirty clothes are temporarily 'stored' in basket and they get dirtier

8) At designated or available times, groups of clothes are washed in cycles (sorting)

9) Decision-making on type of cleaning: washer, by hand or drycleaning

10) Clean water is added to all soiled garments, cleaning agents are added (detergent, bleach)

11) All water is soiled, and all garments share the dirt (different sources & degrees)

12) Cleaning depends on: catalytic reaction (enzyme), friction and rinsing

13) Output: tangled garments, bottlenecks in the process

14) After cycle, decision-making to repeat cycle

15) Machine remains idle most of the time

16) Water and energy consumption is huge and concentrates at peak times

17) Lack of feedback in the washing cycle: “black box” process

18) Limited control of drying process, decision-making for ironing/folding/storing


18 issues & conundrums1) Smell is an important criterion in decision-making -perhaps more than stains

2) Sensorial perception of 'efficient cleaning' (noise, speed)

3) Lots and lots of water wasted unnecessarily

4) Idle machine takes lots of valuable space

5) Water reuse is not supported in the cycle

6) No feedback or guarantee of cleaningness

7) Key prejudices and assumptions, some untrue

8) Bottlenecks: water filling, clothesline, dirty/clean storage

9) Main water pollution is the cleaning agent (detergent)

10) Shape is highly converged

11) Socio-economic target niches are rather blurry in washing machine design

12) Key differences between housewifes-working women (time)

13) Washing is a parallel process and preferred over other chores

14) Clothes damages may indicate good level of washing (trade-off)

15) Experience and elder teachings are crucial

16) Power relations (maids-owner) and emotional relations (mom-family)

17) Cultural judgements based on the type of clothing

18) “One machine cleans all” clothes


Negative feedback cycles

“Mabe does top-loading washers because people buy top-loading washers because

Mabe does top-loading washers because...”


Bifurcation

Clean water is used to do laundry.

End result is (lots and lots) of wasted, dirty water and (more or less) clean clothes.

Soap is the main pollutant of water.


Fuzzy feedback

Washing machines are “black boxes”: people add water + soap + clothes and expect to get

clean clothes, without any real control or feedback of the process


Scale

Most of the time, washing machines are idle. They take up valuable space at home, yet they are used less than 5% of the time (consuming

in peak times water and electricity)


Entropy

Laundry is an entire cycle of order-disorder: clothes are (more or less) classified in the closet, then gradually piled up in basket, then all mixed

in laundry, then re-classified after drying.


Information

Almost all dirt & stains are treated equal: there is no control over origin of stains, source of dirt, levels of smell. After a

threshold, it's all the same.

?


Emergence

A load of laundry is unpredictable: never the same combination of fabrics, dirt, etc.

Often times, unexpected results

!


System

The washing machine is the front-end of the entire plumbing system at home


Holography

Detergent is laundry

Dirty clothes is laundry

Clothesline is laundry


Auto-poiesis

Personal need of washing clothes is created by social pressure created by the sum of personal needs.

Interaction: society-individual-washing machine


Auto-poiesis

Washing machine is used to clean clothes after they get dirty. Could washing be done right before

wearing a garment? Or while? Could washing (or dirtying) be prevented altogether?

Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://www.wowowow.com/politics/rush-limbaugh-vatican-vacuum-cleaner-not-washing-machine-most-liberating-women-233262

Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://www.gizmohighway.com/history/washer.htm







Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://home.howstuffworks.com/washer.htm

Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=clotheswash.pr_clothes_washers

Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=clotheswash.clothes_washers_advanced_technology

Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkMXpKmRXvU&fmt=18


Mabe



Random ideas






















Dr. Ricardo Sosa ([email protected])http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story/Washing-machine-suds-up-les-

chiens/Nlp6OPlocUu9ZrM5T6xccA.cspx


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/05/international/asia/05JAPA.html


A complex view of laundry

Design

ricardo sosa

clean clothes

washing cycle

laundry dirty clothes

dirty water

soiled clothes

groups of clothes

clothes damages