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Conspicuous Repair

Recently my headphones broke.

When something like headphones break, what are our options?

1: Buy a new pair. Perhaps look at a load of consumer reviews to try and choose a make and model.

2: Buy a new pair of the same make and model.

3: Send them to the manufacturer for repair.

4: Send them to a repair shop.

5: Repair them ourselves.

Of course, I chose to repair them myself because:

1: Until they broke, my headphones were really good. they worked well, and they lasted seven years (that's like a million in headphone years). I don't want to spend time and money to get a new pair that I might not like.

2: I got this pair cheap on eBay all those years ago. Looking today, they're more expensive. Besides, I have a pair right here, they just need fixing!

3: I looked it up, but the manufacturer won't repair this model. I guess it's just not worth their time.

4: There is no general purpose repair shop near me, as far as I know.

5: I enjoy repairing things.

So, I did a bit of research to find out how to open the casing without detroying it. I probed between the jack and drivers with a multimeter, and worked out that the cable had a break in it somewhere, but the rest of the wiring and the drivers themselves were OK.

I bodged a three-core wire and a stereo jack to get the headphones working again, but a proper fix needs a more flexible, slimline and lightweight cable and jack.

EBay has plenty of cheap and cheerful 3m black aux cable with a 3.5mm stereo jack on each end. I could chop one of those in half and have a new headphone cable and a spare for when they break again in another seven years.

But for a few more pennies I can get a red aux cable. Or hot pink, or neon green.

Maybe a braided or coiled cable instead, or one with a built in mic.

I could go beyond restoring my headpones to what they were before they broke, and repair them in a way that makes them better. Repair them in a way that makes them stand out.

People will comment on them, and I will proudly declare that I repaired them. It will inspire others to repair their own broken items. Millions of tons will be saved from landfill...

It put me in mind of kintsugi - the Japanese art of mending broken pots with golden lacquer to highlight the repair and the pot's history.

It also made me think of something I can't quite remember... I'm paraphrasing: "You don't really own something until you void its warranty".

Anyway, I was very happy with my idea and coined a term in my head: Conspicuous Repair - Repairing something in such a way as to make it stand out, in an effort to celebrate and normalize repair work, and encourage others to repair their own broken items.

Feeling very smart, I checked online to see if anyone else had ever thought of this. Of course they had!

I found a paper called: "Conspicuous and inconspicuous repair: A framework for situating

repair in relation to consumer practices and design research" by Lee and Wakefield-Rann.

It was quite interesting, and also included the terms "transformative repair" and "visible mending", which I'm sure will lead me down their own interesting internet rabbit-holes.

In conclusion: I think mending things is neat.

P.S. I went with the hot pink.