Domestic renewal: Resetting the table and repairing the domestic

The objects brought to the domestic table reveal valuable insights into how people perceive themselves and reflect the cultural, social, and technological settings through which they become available for "consumption." In this paper we draw on a project and exhibition - Domestic Renewal: A Table Reset¹ - and position it alongside similar projects by artists and designers concerned with the domestic object and with the encasing built environment of the domestic. We posit that Domestic Renewal provides several contributions to understanding the domestic setting. It suggests the significance of making bespoke objects in an era of dematerialized production while recognizing the capacity to be perceived as a sentimental project. We then discuss how exhibiting the project in a gallery shelters its artifacts from capital yet exposes them to critical design. Finally, we weigh up the merits of fostering collaborations in an era of interdisciplinarity, arguing that design practice must recognize its complex connections in order to conduct an agile and situated (or local) response in "making" domestic landscapes.