Why Objects Still Matter
On Ownership, Care and the Slow Death of the Disposable
We live in the age of the unsubstantial.
Music is streamed, homes are rented, memories are stored on disappearing clouds. Every object promises more freedom by being less – foldable, collapsible, easily returned. Ownership has become a burden. Permanence, a flaw.
In this landscape, what place is left for things?
We believe: a meaningful one. But only if the object resists.
Resists speed. Resists noise. Resists obsolescence.
A good object – a true object – asks something of you. It wants to be held, cared for, carried through time. It might stain. It might age. But it rewards attention with depth. Presence with memory. Patience with soul. Think your grandfather’s wristwatch that is always three minutes ahead of time, your mother’s leaky fountain pen from the late 80s, your aunt’s smelly old leather jacket. Are they the most convenient? But, do they stand for something?
To own something today – really own it – is a radical act.
To clean a blade by hand. To mend the fabric, not replace it. To know where the leather came from.
To choose this one thing, and let it stay.
At TANN, we make objects like these.
And in a world of endless newness, perhaps that is enough.
