AIM Framework glossary
Fallow Signature
Canonical definition
The Behavioural Signature of an Object wanted under Mimetic Desire (M): the Object is acquired, used briefly, and then kept unused while the occasions for using the Object continue. The wanting that drove the acquisition ends at possession, because Salience tracks an Object as pursued rather than as possessed. The use that follows is carried by the Object's novelty, through Curiosity, and ends when Boredom registers that the Object has nothing left to resolve, so the interval is the time the Object's novelty takes to be spent and varies with the Object. The Fallow Signature is distinguished from the continuing use of an Object that an Appetitive need or an Intrinsic process requires, which stays in use for as long as the need recurs or the process continues, and from the consumption of an Object used up in the process, whose wanting returns with the process for any equivalent unit. The Fallow Signature applies to every class of Object, roles and memberships included: where a membership was taken up to be seen as a member, the unseen part of the process lapses first and the membership is the last to be let go.
Explanation
Something you wanted because it caught your eye, or because other people wanted it, gets used for a while and then sits in the cupboard. A guitar bought because a friend plays is played for a few weeks while it is new, and then stays on its stand even on the evenings you have free. A guitar bought for playing you love keeps being played, and a loaf of bread is eaten and bought again. Joining things works the same way: if you joined the choir to be seen in it, the rehearsals go first, the concerts last a little longer, and your name stays on the list long after you have stopped singing. How long it takes is however long the novelty lasts, which is different for every Object.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Diagnostic.