Direction

i have come to a turning point a bit later than others but I am confident that it is the right place to begin moving foreward from. i have consulted Sara Houstin who has given me many good pointers and helpped me develop my ideas a bit more. After speaking with her i was able to gether myslef and speak with wonhee and donald a bit more and finally i am in a good spot.


I have decided to explore the functionality of the Kitchen table and look at the way it brings people together. The kitchen is a social place and the more conducive it is to socializing the more people will interact. I have begun dissecting the kitchen table and looking at the things it used for. From food preparation to homework to household projects.

Lost and found

I have been running around with my head chopped off for a while but i feel like this is not always a bad thing...maybe. i have been exploring many directions trying to strengthen the social aspects of preparing and consuming food.

I have been exploring many routes through designs and concepts, really focusing on bringing people together.


This is a piece by Tzuwei Tai exploring the concept of slow food. This piece presents food as a sort of buffet and forces people to interact through the infinite circle. there is no beginning and no end thus people are forced to interact randomly with the object, their food and the people around them.I think this idea of forced interaction is really a direction that i want to go in. I want to attract people to a certain location and then create an environment more conducive to social engagement.

Modular Homework

The Homework Desk by Robin Grasby is an interesting look at modularity and customization. Each of the work surfaces come in two sizes and can be arranged in any way. Also the storage compartments can be rearranged to the users desire.


This modularity could be applied to the kitchen in an interesting way or even to a coffee table...

Transforming Furniture

Turning my concept into a product could take many shapes but I am feeling that the most successful solution would be through a furniture piece. These transforming tables designed by Resource Furniture could be an interesting approach to taking a casual social situation and turning it into a dining situation. Lounge Dining?

It would also be interesting into incorporating cooking apparati to make a social cooking and dining situation all wrapped into one.

Microsoft Wall of Sound

This is a really interesting idea that relates to our food project the user interactionn between sound touch and visuals is similar to our concept of sound, touch (control), and taste. It would be nice to have the resources to do something like this. Each individual panel can be touched and activated to produce a sound or rhythm which creates the wall of sound.

The Sounds of Food

Keenan and i are going to explore the concept of sound in relation to food. We have begun experimenting with synthesizers and drum machines.



Our intention is to explore a series of sounds as ingredients that could be composed and combined as a dish. When a person chooses a set of ingredients for something like a sandwich the individual sounds for the ingredients would create a song. This concept could eventually deter someone from choosing particular ingredients they wanted in exchange for a song that they like.

Building Social Relationships

I want to explore ways of building social relationships through eating. This direction is still rather broad but could has a lot of potential for a strong meaningful product. I have looked at a couple ideas about how to aproach this. i started with some problems i have come across and some thoughts about how socialization can be improved.

In restaurants tables can be restraining and keep you from the other people that may only be 5 feet away from you. although in a room with many people you are forced to focus only on the person across from you and the people in front of you. many Asian restaurants use tabletop preparation which seat many who may not necissarily be together to encourage collectivism. some may want to be in an intimate setting and so the focus can be nice, but this brings me to my next topic.


Intimacy can be nice but does not have to be stagnant. Learning about someone through forced conversation at a nice restaurant can be...nice, but one will find that a date can be so much more interesting in other locals. I found that store are a very nice place to learn about people and it is much easier to learn about who someone really is at a grocery store. this interaction can then be continued into the home where the groceries can be consumed imediatly or prepared and then consumed furthering the interaction.



The third direction i would like to explore is in the kitchen at home. the common kitchen is designed along the walls. Kitchens are designed to keep the sink the oven and the referigerator in close proximity but they still remain along the perimeter connected by countertops. Because of this perimiter set up it forces everyone working in the kitchen to face away from each other. i would like to explore the ways of turning people around and focusing on the center of the room which promotes socializing and interaction.

Collectivist Culture

and interesting article comparing collectivism vs. individualism in eastern and western cultures, especially how these ideas relate to food and the way we eat it explores the lok lok as a product that brings people together at meal times.

The Art of Communal Dining: Lok Lok

When I first came to the United States to pursue my Master’s Degree in Communications, the first thing I learned in my Multicultural Communication class was the distinct difference between Individualism and Collectivism.

Here comes the lecture notes:

“Individualism stands for a society in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family only.

Collectivism stands for a society in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong cohesive in groups where group-oriented culture is the ultimate standard of value.”

Put simply, individualism is that of the western worlds and collectivism is of the east. And yes, this will be on the test!

The art of communal dining is a great example of a collectivism culture such as Malaysia. Eating in Malaysia is often marked as a communal affair–be it the Chinese New Year’s Eve reunion dinner, Malay’s Kenduri, or Indian celebrations. During the feast friends and families come together under the same roof–eating, socializing, and mingling. Never mind the different ethnic origins or walks of life, when it comes to communal dining events, there is no barrier as we speak the same language of food…

One of the best illustrates in the art of communal dining in Malaysia is “Lok Lok.” Lok Lok is like a steamboat / hotpot / shabu shabu with a wide range of fresh foods such as meat, seafood, fish balls, vegetables, quail eggs, etc. placed on little skewers and laid out upon a round table with a pot of boiling water as the centerpiece.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Food Inc.

This is a good review of the film Food Inc. that i watched over the weekend. The reviewer puts it into pretty good context and puts the main points of the film into layman's terms.

David Noel Counter

To dig further into this world of foods and networks i consulted a friend who has owned and operated many resturants in the Eugene area. Counter has worked in all markets of the food industry ranging from working on fishing boats in the pacific to opening one of Eugene's finest eateries, Cafe Zenon. Counter has traveled the world and has been inspired by the social dining habbits of the world. Cafe Zenon especially was influenced by Italian bars. Although these bars do serve alcohal they are much different than what we are used to in the united states. The Italian bars are what we think of as cafe's serving coffee, beverages and assorted cold dishes.



These bars serve as social hubs, old and young gather at all hours of the day to discuss politics music and the weather. David set out to create an environment that (like the bars of Italy) was suitable for all occasions. He developed a resturant that combined a cafe atmosphere with a fine dinning twist. On an averrage day you can find a range of patrons at Zenon ranging from romantic anniversaries to casual coffee.

visual and audio over stimulation

Freezelight Magic Forest from FREEZELIGHT.RU on Vimeo.

The Sound of Arrows - M.A.G.I.C. (Mini-video) from The Sound of Arrows on Vimeo.

The stimulation or over stimulation of some senses can distract from others these are videos that can distract me from just about anything.

Tasting Colors

Dana Small, a neuroscientist at the John B. Pierce Laboratory in New Haven, Conn., and the Yale School of Medicine, sniffs out an answer.

In a classic experiment, French researchers colored a white wine red with an odorless dye and asked a panel of wine experts to describe its taste. The connoisseurs described the wine using typical red wine descriptors rather than terms they would use to evaluate white wine, suggesting that the color played a significant role in the way they perceived the drink.

See the rest of the article here

Welcome

This is a look into the process, research and inspiration of a what will be a ten week long project challenging the way we think about the preparation, presentation and consumption of food.