As I squatted in the mezzanine in the RISD furniture wood shop, taped hands feverishly weaving seats, I thought back to the time, material, money, and effort used in the creation of these three chairs.

What were the values, efficiencies, or lack there of embodied in each? The original J39, the one built for industry, has its place, and even at a one-off scale, was quite fast and affordable, but do the other 2 have a place unto their own?

Each chair rendition has been evaluated via a series of 6 criteria. For the quantitative criteria the higher the quantity of dots, the “better.” Lowest cost equals 3 dots, and so on. Under the qualitative criteria, the scoring is trickier. For example, a chair requiring the highest of explicit knowledge to create, may be less efficient to create under some circumstances, but more efficient under others. Is it truly efficient for workers to have the lowest amount of knowledge, and for the work to have the lowest link of relation to location?

Efficiency is not Absolute

In an essay written by economist Richard Wolff entitled “Efficiency: Whose Efficicency?” he argues that a true measure of efficiency is impossible for a variety of reasons. Of particular interest are that measuring any and all costs of any action over unending time is impossible, and that through a specific and intentional selectivity, the costs which are measured suit the narrative the measurer seeks to write. As such, feminists have pointed out that the hegemonic efficiency calculus has ignored many costs effecting women, reproduction, and households, environmentalists have shown it ignores many impacts on ecology, and marxists have shown it ignores effects on class.

A Paradox on Knowledge…

As I worked my way through a variety of projects, the knowledge required for them posed an interesting paradox. If any undertaking requires minimal knowledge, it in and of itself may be more efficient, but in a system, does requiring little knowledge of the people within it lead to an efficient, or incredibly inefficient system?