Where do things come from? What are they made of? How do they impact society and the environment? That is what this class is about. Product Autopsy is the process of revealing the hidden life of things: the people, the places, and the ideas that made them possible. Over the course of this half-semester class, students will select personally relevant products or services and disassemble them to reveal their impact. Along the way we will
become familiar with the state of the art in impact assessment, including environmental footprinting / Life-Cycle Assessment, social impact assessment, cultural sustainability and operational risk and resilience. Over the course of seven sessions students will prepare a detailed autopsy of their selected products using the most relevant impact metrics and present the results in a mid-term exhibit/review. Projects will be evaluated with an eye toward finding opportunities for radically sustainable alternatives to the way things are made today.

Leonardo Bonanni