Vartude

Vartude is a term used in contemporary speculative design and digital culture to describe the process by which value is created, transformed, and redistributed across different modalities and networks. Unlike established economic terms, vartude operates as a heuristic rather than a fixed metric, intended to capture how value moves between material, digital, social, and experiential domains.

Origin and usage: The word appears in late 2010s design discourse and has no single authoritative etymology. It is often presented as a compound of elements related to value with a suffix implying state or quality, but usage varies by author.

Concept: In vartude, value is not static but migrates through platforms, protocols, and interactions. Analysts may examine how attention, data, reputation, and physical goods are converted or traded, and how governance, ownership, and rights affect distribution. It emphasizes emergent properties of value networks rather than isolated transactions.

Applications: Designers and scholars use vartude to assess product ecosystems, platform governance, and collaborative economies. Case studies might analyze how user-generated content creates social value that is monetized differently across services, or how digital twin scenarios reify intangible value into concrete outcomes.

Criticism and status: The term remains disputed and loosely defined, with critics arguing it risks vagueness unless paired with explicit methodologies. Supporters contend it provides a flexible lens for cross-disciplinary analysis.