Feast | Material
Instructors: Mohamad Araji, Jae Sung Chon, Ryan Coates, Katherine Isaac, Leanne Muir, Kim Wiese
Our eating habits are as varied as we are as individuals. They reflect our cultures and traditions, personal histories and families, rituals, and daily routines. How/when does the ritual of eating ground us to one another, our environment, materials, and place? What are the roles of the spaces, objects, and traditions that define our unique understanding, relationships, and experiences of eating? What are the roles of materials in this context, against the backdrop of sustainability and physical distancing, tradition, convenience, immediacy and ritual? How do specific material functions determine form, experience, and meaning in such contexts?
Feast | Material pursues a purposeful integration of notions of feasting, eating, and material life-cycle considerations to propose an object, experience, or environment that that directly engages the ritual of feasting.
Van Nathalie
Faye Dia
Megan
Dyck
Kosi
Ezeh-Igbokwe
Sydney
Friesen
Anastasia
Kory
Danae
McKennitt
Anita
Okonye
Olabisi
Olawole
Vinicius
Segato
Rundie
Shi
Van Nathalie Faye Dia
Being a designer grants the privilege to leave a lasting impact on the world. I wish to obtain that privilege and generate designs that heal and protect. I am interested in how I can influence a person and their setting, including their moods and thoughts, through design and space. My desire to influence others and to make the world a better place fuels my ambition as a designer.
Tiklop Ng Dahon | An Everyday Boodle Fight
#tactile_experience #think_green #simplicity #no_more_plasticware #make_your_plate #mindfulness #waste into_compost #cradle to cradle
The boodle fight is one of the most exciting feasting experience in Filipino culture. It brings people together to feast on a colourful array of food, beautifully arranged on banana leaves, using the hands as the only utensil —’kamayan’.
In a feast where all senses are engaged, the banana leaves are one of the most important elements. It serves as a placemat and a plate. It adds flavour and gives off a smoky, grassy aroma that stimulate the appetite. People have been using banana leaves as a resource for centuries as they are inexpensive, inexhaustible, and biodegradable. How can I incorporate this material into everyday meals? How can I create a new experience out of an element from an existing experience? How can I be more conscious of food and waste?
The project intention is to design simple folds to create a personal everyday boodle fight experience. With a set of instructions, biodegradable, disposable food surfaces can be made, essentially replacing disposable plasticware. The design also encourages one to compost and recycle the waste produced afterwards.
Megan Dyck
I have always been fascinated with design; however, I only pursued it as a hobby in my youth. After a year of being uninspired by my business classes, I decided to make the leap and try out the Environmental Design program. There was a huge difference in the content and the way the classes were delivered, and I loved it! If being in lockdown this past school year has taught me anything, it is that life is short and to enjoy what you choose to do with it.
ILLUMINATING CULTURE
#CulturalAppreciation #Conversation #Representation #0rganicLeather
Recipes and foods seem to be one common cultural aspect that is always passed down through generations. However, how can the cultural qualities originating in the kitchen and dining room be expanded upon? The intention behind Illuminating Culture is to physically display and illuminate one’s culture across the room that it is frequently appreciated in the most—the dining room.
Historically and in the modern-day, chandeliers are used over the dining table as an elaborate, eye-catching piece, but often lack a deeper connection, and designs are chosen solely for their beauty. The dining room is regularly where bigger meals occur, specifically dinners and larger gatherings. Culture has a major influence on food, and so a family’s culture being reflected physically in the place where the feasting occurs is a way to celebrate one’s origin and allow it to become a possible conversation starter with guests.
As banana peels are biodegradable, the use of them in the project is less about not wasting the material, and instead about finding a durable organic alternative that can replace plastics and other synthetic materials that remain in landfills.
The overall goal of Illuminating Culture is to inspire a deeper understanding Of the foods one eats and provide a different display of one’s culture that may not be quite as popular and well-known but in a modern form. Illuminating Culture will inspire the family who owns it to explore their own culture further and is also a fun way to start a deep and educational conversation with dinner guests.
Kosi Ezeh-Igbokwe
ED2 was full of adventures, it was the best and worst Year of my life. I met my closest Friends and spent lots of sleepless nights working. I Learned patience, process endurance and life lessons. It gets better with time. I grew as a person and an adult. This project was favourite because I could express myself, and because I enjoy making.
Nothing
#Cardboard #Waste #Spill #Plate #Earth #Save #lnvaluable #Valuable #Compartment #Overconsumption
When, last did you place an order online? When the order was delivered to your doorstep, what kind of packaging was used? Let us go ahead and assume it was a cardboard box. What did you do with the cardboard box after you retrieved your package? Let us make another guess; you threw it in the trash.
Most people regard cardboard as nothing; it is cheap; readily available and easy to come by. As a result, it is thrown away or used for storage; what if we could transform such material into something that is valuable and used dally, something that helps us partake and enjoy, the art of feasting.
Taking inspiration from my culture and the tools used in the act of creating a feast and feasting itself, cardboard was chosen, because after becoming refined, its texture is like a stone. It is rough just like the traditional pots. Before getting baked, molding it, it feels like using clay which is another predominant material used for making those traditional tools The design created is a compartmental plate that helps combat food spills and waste. The outer part helps hold the food spilled from the inner part from spilling. It could also act as a way to ration your food and prevent over consumption.
What if cardboard could become somebodies’ favorite plate or cup or spoon? What if cardboard becomes a family heirloom passed down from mother to daughter? How will the climate change issues be affected, if all the utensils were created from cardboard, instead of cardboard been burned or left in the landfill to release toxins into the atmosphere? Though without a doubt some cardboard is recycled, we could cut in half the number of those that are not.
The cardboard is hard and difficult to manipulate, we could turn it to some fragile and intricate. Suddenly an invaluable material would be valuable and it could even add in the effort to save the planet one cardboard box at a time. The aim of this project is to try to bring out something tangible, from the intangible, to create beauty from scraps.
Sydney Friesen
This past year I have surprised myself in many ways and I’m extremely proud of everything I have accomplished and learnt. I’ve pushed myself more than I’ve ever done before and found a sense of motivation that I’ve never truly experienced, by working towards a personal goal that has never felt so relevant in my life. Before this program, I had the habit of constantly looking at the big picture, causing me to overthink everything. However, this year has shown me the importance of the process which leads to the final product. This mentality has provided me guidance and growth in the various skills that were taught, such as photography and computer programs, which overwhelmed me in the beginning.
CREATIVE CONNECTIONS
Through looking into the traditions of family dinners, one constant factor that stands out is the unique conversations that take place during that time of gathering. These discussions are created by 4 different people with 4 different days, coming together to create new conversations and a new experience everyday.
Once family dinner is finished, the rice clay mats are used to create art on, which is inspired by the conversations and events that take place during dinner. This allows for reflection on the discussions, while the food that falls on the mats is incorporated within the art as well, which results in a unique outcome every time, just as family dinners do. Over time the rice mats crack and fall apart, making the art a temporary creation, just as the dinners are, while the reflection allows for a more concrete memory.
Anastasia Kory
My journey through ED2 has taught me to incorporate my personal experiences within my work, often aiming to convey a message of start a topic of conversation. My personal interest within interior spaces involves the interactions of individuals with the minute details of a setting.
Senseless
To some people like myself, taking a constant influx of medication is a means for survival. The intent of this project is to create a psychological experience of taking medication and its tense relationship with food. Through stripping down the senses within the scene ordinary people are encouraged to approach the disorienting experience of how it is like to take medication, and viewing food as a means of a strict necessity. The tense clinical atmosphere uses the person’s uncomfort to shape their view on the event, without having any senses to influence the experience. The setting uses various iterations of plastic as a material to create a discomforting medical environment. e objects within the space are wrapped in a plastic c ting, creating a sterile and clean surface where touch is restricted to. The enjoyment of food is strongly attributed to the taste, within this senseless dining encounter food is capsulated within plastic pill capsules to devoid it from the joy of eating. The shard’s dining hat proceeds to cut off the rest of the senses from the person, with the plastic shards functioning as both structural stability and hearing preventative measures. The visual distortion made from the plastic film creates a blurred nauseating effect, reducing the apatite in the process. Used as a means for frustration and uncomfort the experience taking medication with food can be recreated with all the elements taken into account within this project.
Danae McKennitt
As an artist, choreographer, dancer and designer I strive to facilitate an experience. One that goes beyond the visual to elicit questions the ‘audience’ did not know they had. I enjoy creating work that manipulates and utilizes the physicality of the human body.
POV
#hybrids #softorhard #impermanence #fluidrigidity #deceptiveperception #twinning #use(full)/(less) #redefinition
Hands.
Fingers.
Feasting through touch.
Soft.
Delicate.
Brushing across your velvety surface.
Hard.
Rugged.
Gripping onto your every crevice
Hands.
Fingers.
Defining the world.
Soft.
Supple.
Folding under gentle pressure.
Hard.
Fixed.
Withstanding external stressors.
Fabric.
Porcelain.
Memories.
Deception is brought on by one’s inability to accurately perceive reality. The Rigid unraveling of Perception demands the viewer to re-frame the way they experience drinking by redefining the expected material and usefulness of the mug.
Anita Okonye
Memories have moulded me as an individual, such observations made me to realise that design is an extremely powerful tool that controls and shapes everything around us. It proposes my mistakes, learnings, shortcomings as well as the outcomes. At some point, I hope for my aesthetics and designs in a space to spark memories that creates conversations where individuals will be longing for memories and become inspired.
Wazobia Plata
#culture #isolation #separation #division #etiquette #mixture #disconnect
In such perilous times, many can understand to the disconnect and strain one feels from minimised interaction with their loved ones. In Lagos, feasts and gatherings are held every Saturday, it is often said that party’ can be held for the success of previous party.
Wazobia is combination of three languages which means come. The term connects through the cultural unification of three languages with a Nigerian dish termed swallow eaten with soup. The Wazobia Plata is a serving plate that has been mapped out through one’s eating pattern. The plate compartmentalises each part of the meal. Essentially, separating aspects of the meal which reflects one’s current living situation, being away from loved ones.
The Wazobia Plata is made of orange peels, bioresin and cornstarch. The design has considered orange peels working with the material as hybrid element in its fine and rough form. Design measures such as thickness, diameter, orange peels in various forms have been considered and analysed to create suitable plates for feasting. The mould of the plate is considered essential as it has been created to adapt to an individual’s eating patterns.
Olabisi Olawole
Walked out and about. Went through the thought of places and the words my memory holds. Moving in spaces towards the pieces of memory. I leave a form until I move through it again. Always probably I can pour a glass and take a break.
Time Scape
Why do we like a certain food? How does it make us feel? If our moods can be a result of an unhealthy dining experience, how can a design intervention make it pleasant?
Our heightened state of awareness could as a result influence perception during a dining experience and people are likely to be more aware of the impact they leave. The design provides a sensorial experience to the space, and tries to better attune the dining environment. The inquiry begins as an observation; from the way we share a meal, to leaving our invisible traces on the dining table, to remembering the experience at a latter time. The way we eat may not always conform to the flat surface of a table, hence the material form is events-based such that time becomes an extension of the meal.
Vinicius Segato
I want to design in order to feel the joy of creating a place where I do not need to avoid expressing myself, and make spaces where I would feel safe in speaking how I feel, since this is how I want to live from now on.
Orange Blossoms
#orange #ediblebowl #movingmeal #sharing #materiallifecycle
Inspired by the festivity from Brazil know as the ‘Festa Junina’, Orange Blossoms invites the user to have a meal while standing, moving, and celebrating the origin and harvest of the food. While half of the piece is shaped as the hanging balloons and flags from said festival, the bottom half leads the user to think about the origin of the material due to the sense of smell, texture, and taste of the piece. The project aims to create a shared space for four users, whereas each user has three distinct plates that compile the act of ‘feasting’ (appetizers, main meal, and dessert) according to the view of the user group. The act of standing, feasting and moving given by the placing of each plate is decided to create a more casual and dynamic experience, similar to an eating festival, and the distinct verticality of each piece aims to enhance the concept of an orange and the act of harvesting the material.
Rundie Shi
Everyone has dreams. Some of the dreams are small, some of them are big. However, we all have the dream about the world. We want to see the possibilities of the world, we want to see the beauty of the world, and we want to make the world better. From my perspective, architectural design could be a way to explore and realize the dreams of the world. In micro, it helps to realize the dream of people. In macro, it is an indispensable part of the development of society. It makes a dream not only a dream.
Endless Heritage: Instructional Scarf Gloves
#chinesespringfestival #traditionalhandicraft #endlessinheritance #createacrucialmoment #guideline #teachingandlearning #share #atmosphere #experiencing #object
The Spring Festival is the most important festival to celebrate the New Year in China. It symbolizes family reunion and plays a role in the concept of passing on traditional crafts in food. As one of the traditional Chinese delicacies, dumpling is an indispensable dish on the Spring Festival table. This is because eating dumplings during the Spring Festival means a desire for the New Year’s auspicious rich and a vision of the future. Therefore, when Spring Festival comes, all family members will be involved to make dumplings. Therefore, my project intention is to design a teaching tool to show the processes of fold dumplings in order to teach and share one crucial Chinese traditional food culture with people who have never got a chance to touch it.
