Another unique German word. Umfunktionierung. Functional transformation.
Most of us take the tools we’re given and use them as instructed. We follow the manual. We color inside the lines. We accept the functions as defined by those who came before us.
But the ruckus maker asks: What if this tool could do something else?
Umfunktionierung isn’t incremental improvement. It’s about repurposing or reimagining. Taking the apparatus of production and fundamentally changing its function. Brecht coined the term in his work on the theory of theater, and the philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote about it. But it isn’t just for playwrights or Marxist philosophers from the 1930s.
Twitter wasn’t built for social movements, but activists transformed it into a tool that wasn’t planned for. Email wasn’t designed for newsletters, but creators repurposed it and invented a new medium. Smartphones weren’t made for documentary filmmaking, but filmmakers redefined their use.
Functional transformation doesn’t ask us to build something new from scratch. It requires us to look at what already exists and see possibilities others have missed.
This is how industries evolve. Not always through invention, but through transformation.
Sometimes, we make an impact by transforming the function of what already exists.