Designing Disappearance: On the Cultural and Affective Histories of Waste

Abstract

The _Essay explores affective and cultural legacies embedded in disposal architectures. Drawing on various theories of waste, it examines the material histories of domestic disposal and notions of affect and belonging. Central questions include how the design, function, and everyday use of disposal systems shape perceptions of waste; how these architectures relate to notions of citizenship; and how waste is perceived as either a social good or a mere trace of survival. In different literary and cultural contexts, the _Essay examines historically shaped distinctions between purity and pollution, necessity and excess, and structure and disorder through the lenses of Lauren Berlant’s concept of intimate publics and cultural theories of waste.

Keywords

• affect theory
• discard studies
• cultural history
• political aesthetics
• waste design
• discard literature