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Post-event

Mission:  To share informative graphics

Under the category ‘Document’, we seek to preserve memories, entertain and believe that documentation would be beneficial for knowledge.

Target Audience: Respective year 1 cohort of students and lecturers.

Group Members: Ara Koh, Jenny Yujin, Samantha Sun, Zelia Cheng, Lai Joo Yee, Shervin Low On week 7, we presented our idea on food stamping. After having a sudden spark of inspiration, i wanted to contribute to the event in bringing our cohort together with an interactive installation, originally inspired by Stefan Sagmeister’s ‘The Happy Show’ which documents his results of his ten-year explorations and investigation regarding happiness. It was so intriguing and interactive to the visitors that it left an impact on me craving to contribute to the food event in a similar manner. We thought that it was a good idea to conduct an interactive activity of sorts and give our work meaning. Given that we chose to follow through ‘Activate’ and though we are not going through with the food stamping idea, we’re taking it further by not only creating something aesthetically pleasing but as a whole, a physical data representation that would create awareness and impact to the people present. Up till week 11, we went on about planning the details and mock ups for our physical data representation. However, as it is not feasible with the restricted usage of plastic, we decided to create a digital data representation instead. Therefore, leading us to ‘Document’ rather than ‘Activate’. Discussing about further ways to represent data in a digital medium, we decided to go with the idea of infographics as they make complex information eye catching, shareable and easily digestible. Most importantly, they play a crucial role in the increasingly visual world of marketing.  During the event, we spent our time mostly hanging around the food prep area as we collected our data for the infographics. Firstly we thought of what data we could collect from the event for everyone to enjoy. We counted the number of each specific fruit that everyone bought from Queen Victoria Market while they were being placed on a table before the cutting process – we expanded from there and timed how long prepping takes for each fruit. Towards the end of the event, there were many leftovers so we counted what was being left before Andy distributed them. We then gathered for a short discussion and distributed the work after the event – Sam does the illustration of fruits while the rest of us comes up with one section of the infographic poster.

After viewing everyone’s poster from Ara’s email, i felt that it looked raw and very far from what an infographic poster should look like. Hence i compiled everyone’s section and made everyone’s work flow more as a single infographic poster. The food leftover section, which was my section, was repetitive when i place all of the designs in (too many repeated fruit graphics) hence i took that section off and placed in the information of dietary fiber for each fruit. This is our final poster: 

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FOOD event

Finally the day we have been preparing for 12 weeks, came. I was excited as soon as i saw the entrance of the whole setup; it showed me how impactful environmental design can be. Brand identity was important as well as it shows the essence of the event. Overall i felt like even though the event could be more organised, it was due to some factors like how both studio groups on different days were organising the same event which in turn increases the chances of miscommunication/lack of communication.

During the event, we spent our time mostly hanging around the food prep area as we collected our data for the infographics. Firstly we thought of what data we could collect from the event for everyone to enjoy. We counted the number of each specific fruit that everyone bought from Queen Victoria Market while they were being placed on a table before the cutting process – we expanded from there and timed how long prepping takes for each fruit. Towards the end of the event, there were many leftovers so we counted what was being left before Andy distributed them.

Besides collecting data and documenting what’s needed, our group bonded with the activities that are going around us. I was curious to look at what everyone came up with from merchandising such as totebags, stickers, to using digital media like a snapchat filter. It was also interesting how the whole set-up of the Alumni Courtyard really set the mood of the whole event:

Playing with the snapchat filter and documenting our meal of the day!

I was thrilled (cheap thrill) to see with how everyone had different sets of cutlery as well as different designs of invite/paper food bowl.

A group photo of us before we sat down to discuss and tally our results for the data collected. We then further discussed specific details back at Building 9, Level 2 on the standardisation and style of our infographics. We were also contemplating on the number of posters to produce, the topics that needs to be covered, the style guides for the layouts and illustrations, the roles of each team member and when to complete our individual posters. 

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Pre-event

Before the event I created an attractive gif and posted it up on the facebook group of ‘RMIT CommDesign First Years 2016’ to promote and advertise what our group is up to thus far, and to leave the group in anticipation

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Strategy

I’ve written a post on Strategy here but figured i should just upload the actual work for future reference:

[zeliarmit]

WEEKS 11 & 12

This will be a very long post as many many changes were made. 

tl;dr - we’ve shifted from Activate to Document, and will no longer be dealing with food waste.

This week the class walked through the event together, from the buying of the ingredients to what to do with the waste in order to figure out what still needed to be done. Each team also started to refine their ideas, preparing them for execution on the actual day. 

Some of our refinements:

- each cup would represent one person (number of cups = number of people) - by ‘waste’ we mean inedible organic stuff (e.g. peels, rinds, stems and seeds)

We tried to think of ways to:

1. stably stack the cups

While we initially wanted to stack the cups to make a tower, the method required using something (we thought of a piece of hard plastic) in-between each row, which would end up as more unnecessary waste. Although we liked that a single tower of cups would be a good physical bar graph (as the bottom ones would all be filled with waste while the top would be empty)

Thinking back to when we saw a group of students stacking empty plastic cups into a triangle (pyramid?) after some beer event at Alumni Courtyard, we figured that could be a good way to do it. The next problem would be preventing any toppling over (they almost managed to complete the triangle but it collapsed) and we thought putting it against a wall (to prevent wind) would be a good solution. We also figured that if it still wouldn’t work, we could use blue tack or some tape as a last resort.

2. make the installation interactive

As for making it interactive, since each cup would be representing one person at the food event, we thought it would be fun for everyone to stack their own cups onto the pyramid. Each person would bring their cup, fill it with waste (that we would have collected during the preparation) and place it. Once the waste runs out, we would just let the rest stack the empty cups at the top. It would then be really easy to see and count the amount of waste.

3. inform them about what we’re intending to do (keep the cups!)

We figured we could just post it on the Facebook group, but seeing as not everyone has Facebook (and not everyone might see it in time) we thought it would be a good idea to make a sticker to paste on each cup with the instructions. However we realized two things: 1) it would be expensive to produce and 2) it may make the cups not compostable. So, we thought we could just have a poster/ signboard informing people what to do at the drink station (where they would be getting the cups from).

However, after speaking to Andy, we found out that every other team was trying to stay away from using plastic, so he suggested that we think of something else. Despite the cups being compostable and the fact that the drinks team would be using the cups before we do, it just didn’t really sit well with what everyone else was doing. The drinks team would now be using the teacups Andy brought during the first Soup Kitchen.

So, we had to scrap everything we’d just discussed and think of a new way to visually and physically represent how much waste we produced.

We came up with three ways to show the food vs. waste data:

1. tarp

Since the salad was going to be made on a tarp, we could photograph the salad once it’s been made and then on another similar tarp, photograph the waste from the production. It would then just serve as a visual representation, with the tarp being the scale reference.

2. weight

Additionally, we could weigh all the fruits before they get cut up and prepared and then weigh the waste to find out the percentage of it we’re actually eating. We were thinking we cold gather everyone around at each weighing or something.

3. boxes

We would photograph all the boxes full of fruits once they get to the Alumni Courtyard from Queen Victoria Market, save the boxes/ crates, and then fill them up with waste at the end and photograph it again in a similar arrangement. This way, we would have the boxes as reference to how much of the fruit we are actually consuming, and we wouldn’t have any additional waste. However we also heard from Andy that there was a team making tote bags that they would use to transport the fruit, so this idea might not work.

But basically a lot of problems kept coming up if we wanted to use the actual physical waste, so, with Andy’s approval, we decided against it. 

And we’ve finally arrived at what we’ll actually be doing during the food event: our team will be collecting as much data as we can from the event and make infographics about them. We would be collecting some basic info that we can then find patterns in.

For example, from something simple like the number of each fruit we could find out which fruit was the most popular and how many colours were in the fruit salad. 

However we’re also exploring the option of getting more complex data such as which fruit travelled the furthest to get to us (not just “from QVM” but maybe the origin of the fruit etc.)

How are we going to collect this data? We haven’t figured it all out yet, but to find out how many of each fruit there are, each one of us will stalk one member of the preparation team and count how many of each fruit they’re preparing as they prepare it. We’ll then collate all our results and see what other info we can get.

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Craft (Week 11)

As food systems become more processed, supply-chains become longer, and our diets are characterised by a long list of chemicals rather than ingredients, losing our personal connection to food. To conclude, Food is an essential part of health and wellbeing – chosen, prepared, cooked and consumed correctly, food is medicine – it can and has been an enormous catalyst to gains in life expectancy and quality of life to populations around the globe. By creating a typeface out of organic fruits and vegetables, it is remind everyone that "we are what we eat" and to promote a healthy living lifestyle. 

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Week 10 (26/09/16)

We decided on the topic of food waste with our physical data representation, spoke to Elana’s team and we thought about sending the waste to compost at the worm farm in Queen Victoria Markets which was cool so as to make full use of the food waste being produced. We searched through our options of materials and how to effectively represent the data of food waste during the event. Thinking that it’ll be pretty cool to create an installation by measuring in cups for every person present, we discussed with the drinks team and decided to provide a compostable cup for drinks. Once everyone is done with their drink they’ll place their food waste into the cup. Having little or no experience in gardening and much less about composting, i decided to do research regarding the matter so that everyone reading this will have a better information on it in general. 

Composting is nature’s way of taking waste and turning it into nutrient-rich soil. One of the misconceptions and why more people don’t compost more is that they are worried about the smell or that it could get overrun by bugs. You need some of those bugs to do their job and eat the refuse and produce the compost. Basically, compost is essential to a healthy garden and a healthy environment. 

Published in Grid Magazine, 2011. Artwork by Melissa Mcfleeters

To start your compost, you will need to get a few necessary ingredients. 

- Start by picking up any brown materials like dried leaves or twigs. 

- Break up the twigs if they are branches into small pieces and let the brown materials be your base. Then add in green materials which is easiest found in lawn clippings and newspaper. 

- All your leftover fruits and vegetables except for citrus can go onto your compost pile. (Stay away from adding meats, oil and dairy as that’s when you attract the bugs you really don’t want as well as animals and even maggots.)

- Try to cut your kitchen scraps in to smaller pieces to help speed up the composting process.  

- Once you have all of those ingredients on your pile, add in one scoop of existing compost or potting soil if you have it, as this acts like a starter. Then grab the hose and water the compost pile down.

- Take a break and either use a pitch fork or a shovel to mix everything. Water it down again until it is completely wet, through and through. 

Read more at http://momsneedtoknow.com/composting-basics-get-started-composting/#YUTPBlq0cd4KD1Py.99

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Craft (Week 10)

For this week of craft, we did an activity in class making a mandala out of food materials. A mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Indian religions, representing the universe. A mandala has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe.

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Week 9 (25/09/16)

Moving forward, we decide to execute experimentations for our interactive installation with doing rapid prototypes that we learnt from class. From the possible materials we thought of, we constructed a box that would aid our visual data representation. Using a white plastic film, clear plastic film, and a cardboard box, we took in consideration the fact that waste would be watery and eliminate the factor by covering the cardboard box with a layer of film. Cons of the method: it may not be durable enough, filmsy once it fills up Pros of the method: design-friendly, environmentally friendly

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Craft (Week 9)

For this week of craft, we were tasked to make an exquisite corpse out of what we could find from magazine spreads as material. Folding an a4 sized paper into a quarter, we were told to split the illustration into 4 different parts: head, upper torso, lower torso and legs for the template. There weren’t any rules regarding the look of our corpse, thus it was fun experimenting and making the collage using our imagination, pushing the boundaries of what a head should look like and so on.

What was interesting was also the fact that we were collaborating with our peers. We folded the paper to hide what we worked on so that when we pass it to the next person working on the next body part, he/she will have no expectation on what the previous section looks like. This in turn, took away my worries and insecurities of creating something imperfect which made me focus more on simply creating what i felt like doing.

I was really curious how every section of my collages turn out to look like and it was a truly nice surprise seeing my pieces juxtaposed with different personalities as i obviously wouldn’t have done it the same without the help of my peers. Our end results were displayed on the walls and i took snapshots of the various works:

My ‘head’ contribution

Upper torso

Lower torso

Legs

To sum up I thoroughly enjoyed this session and I believe that after going through both Strategy and Futures, i’m leaning more towards Craft as my chosen elective.

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Week 9 (19/09/16)

This week we discussed about rapid prototypes - with the possibility of creating a cognitive walkthrough (think out loud/review), heuristics evaluation (problem solving by experimental/trial & error methods/assumptions/averages), and the effects that the system has on its user.

After the group discussion on friday, we had to first figure out the mechanics of our project. We assigned each individual to different locations to find and source on the materials that could work for our physical data representation. We will then experiment by creating prototypes with the different materials that were found on our sunday meetup. 

Andy carried on to give us hints like representing organic food waste, information about food, where food travels, or our attitudes towards food would be all up our ally as well.

Moving forward, Samantha will visit Costco for cardboard boxes and clear plastic sheets, Ara will visit a second hand hardware store near Brunswick and Jooyee would be in charge of buying fruits at Queen Victoria Market. Zelia and I headed to IKEA to source for various possible materials like plastic containers that are transparent

The three different glass containers from the kitchen section of IKEA, we felt that they were all kind of too small to collect data though it’ll be visually pleasing

In the home organization section, we found fabric boxes which isn’t ideal for collecting data with regards to fruit wastage as they would produce liquid

It seems like this plastic transparent box was the best possible material that we could find in IKEA, and it ranges in several sizes as well. 

A set up of plastic bags with clips on the board caught my eye, pondering over the boundaries of what our installation could be

Thought of food wastage as compost to grow plants and we could have it displayed up a ladder as such.

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Research: Shape Shift Shout

Taken at GLOW Winter Arts festival, Prahran. 

Olaf Meyer enjoys working with animated movement and rhythm to evoke emotions. In his 3D projection mapping work, Meyer uses shadows and textures on building facades, bringing the architecture around us to life. I’ve always been fascinated by projection mapping as this is an interesting way to create a vibrancy and depth with the space around us. It is a positive anomaly to bring a fresher perspective of a place that might already be familiar.

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Research: Fake Food Park

While visiting NGV i spotted this exhibition by Catalan food designer Martí Guixé, who often challenges notions of how we eat in often whimsical and surprising ways. 

In a colourful, custom-designed kitchen surrounded by dining booths, Fake Food Park is a vibrant and interactive, large-scale exhibition developed for children and families to inspire a rethinking of the ways we eat and our attitudes to familiar foods. Through a hands-on activity and digital design challenges, visitors will be asked to sprout new ideas for food concepts and flavours, and create their very own ‘Fake Food Park’ menu. 

This is pretty relevant to us as ‘Fake Food Park’ itself is a design experience around the exhibition. We could all learn from this well curated exhibition and in turn relate to our cohesive event.

Me in the middle of the exhibition; i liked how the interior was well thought out as illustrations were following from the floor up to the walls, being in this space made me feel like a kid again.

Featuring Guixé’s drawings, illustrations and fruit-and-vegetable wallpaper.

Thoughts regarding the identity: The font is appropriately chosen or created to look like the handwriting of a child to suit the whole aesthetic of the exhibition catering for especially for kids (not that adults can’t enjoy this) and it feels united alongside the illustrations he made. 

I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the interaction at the centre of the exhibition; a kitchen space where visitors can construct a ‘meal’ using a collection of blocks, fabric and other materials, which is then photographed and magically transformed into a composite image of real food items.

Researching more on Guixé – he is especially recognised for his work in the field of food design, an industry that approaches food and eating from a design viewpoint to develop new innovations such as modern airline meals or 3-D printed food. In 2009 he constructed a banquet in New York City with micro-snacks and hand-drawn instructions prompting visitors to interact with strangers, and in 2007 he installed The Candy Restaurant in Tokyo, which turned the act of eating candy into a fine dining experience.

For anyone interested: http://www.food-designing.com/

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Visual Data Representations (16/09/16)

Met with the group on friday’s session. We discussed further regarding tracking data with food waste – a physical 3D data representation. Below is a summary what we discussed: Possible Questions for our visual data representation Objective - nutrition (calorie count, separation of food category) - cost - how much waste we’re wasting (recyclable/compostable by colour) - comparing raw to used to waste - weighing the volume of food wasted

Subjective - personal taste: how good the food was - fruit or vegetable - the happiness of each individual through the event - how successful the event was

Possible Materials: - Plastic bottles - Food Waste - Fruit Waste - Plastic boxes - Cardboard - Clear container - Clear sheets

Tristan then came to talk to us regarding where the placement of our installation would be at. We discussed and came to a conclusion whereby it will probably be near the sitting area as it should be convenient for throwing food waste and the time of activity would be towards the end of the entire event.

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Week 8 (12/09/16)

This week was all about remixing ideas with what the other groups are doing, so we took the initiative to create a facebook group with group 12 and 16 as we thought that we could remix our printmaking ideas onto what they were doing.

Our facebook group with group 12 and 16. It was essential to us as not everyone has classes on the same day.

After having a sudden spark of inspiration, i wanted to contribute to the event in bringing our cohort together with an interactive installation, originally inspired by Stefan Sagmeister’s ‘The Happy Show’ which documents his results of his ten-year explorations and investigation regarding happiness. It was so intriguing and interactive to the visitors that it left an impact on me craving to contribute to the food event in a similar manner. 

A push button that dispenses a card with instructions on how to behave during the visit. The messages are things like, “Walk through the exhibit and pretend you are the artist” and “Carry whoever you are with on your back throughout the exhibit.”

Another interactive activity to do in ‘The Happy Show’ – Drawing your symbol of happiness

A data representation made out of yellow gumball machine to survey overall visitor’s mood levels

Displaying his favourite sweets After discussing with my group on how we could integrate this idea of visual statistics into our initial idea (which was food stamping) here was what we came up with. 

- have everyone rate how satisfied they were with the food project by stamping a piece of waste onto a number (very similar Sagmeister’s installation) 

- have everyone rate their satisfaction, but with different colours representing different levels (e.g. 1 is blue and 10 is red), but they can stamp it anywhere they like on the installation, so at the end we would be able to see the general consensus based on the most prominent colour 

However, after speaking with Andy, we realised that we didn’t have to stick to print making, but rather the idea of using food waste as a tool. 

We could separate food waste based on colour, or sorting them based on material of waste (recyclable/compostable etc) to have a visual representation on how much waste was wasted for the event. The next step for us would be to think and research on data representations as well as possible questions and materials that would be used.

We thought that it was a good idea to conduct an interactive activity of sorts and give our work meaning. Given that we chose to follow through ‘Activate’ and though we are not going through with the food stamping idea (and in turn not collaborating with group 12/16), we’re taking it further by not only creating something aesthetically pleasing but as a whole, a physical data representation that would create awareness and impact to the people present. Our new MSCW (Group 20) Printmaking/Food stamping -> Visual data representation with food waste

Must: be interactive, let everyone leave their mark, represent a statistic, use waste as a tool/medium Should: be colourful Could: include other visuals Will not: be an individual activity 

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Week 7 (05/09/16)

For this week’s workshop we finally set the venue of the event (Alumni Courtyard) and discussed on the food that would be served on the actual day, which would be bought in Queen Victoria Market to make either a fruit or vegetable salad. Keeping that in mind, we also learnt some important tools for working with complex and fluid sets of problems like the Agile SCRUM for teamwork and the MoSCoW method for task evaluation.

Agile sprint means constant change – to discover, design, test and develop. We learnt that it was okay to constantly have different ideas as we progress towards the actual event. 

MoSCoW is an acronym derived from the first letter of each of four prioritization categories (Must have, Should have, Could have, and Would not have) used for analysis of a project which is useful to keep track of. 

Group 20′s MSCW Must have: printmaking, prints & patterns

Should have: making use of food wastage, to be experiential

Could have: colours, textures, smell

Will not have: toxic materials

We then visited the alumni courtyard to have a better gauge on the situation for the actual event.

I’m presuming that it’ll be good to always be prepared for wet weather – setting up our event surrounding the tented area would helpful.

The ceiling of the tent caught my eye with the plants that were being hung up. Seems like there would be room for an installation around the area.

Unsure if the green blocks would be there permanently, just something to take in consideration of.

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Week 5-8: Futures

Futures is a stream that challenges traditional design practices to unearth new approaches. It definitely pushes us out of our comfort zone and in turn strengthening the creative capacity of our design thinking in the process. Going head in, we were asked to do an interview with another classmate about their favourite song and then creating an artefact which reflects the multiple layers of art direction in context. Disrupting the definition of the solution and being vague in regards to what an artefact was, many of us were uncomfortable but i realised that at the end of week 8, we all had different approaches to our brief which was interesting. We learnt how to conceptualize an emotive story by placing our artefact in an ambient setting to give it an extra layer of narrative. 

Given that music taste is very personal and intimate to share, i felt a closer bond to my partner after by attempting to do her chosen song and the emotive story behind justice with my outcome. I learnt to use communication as an agent by rationalising as it is important to convey it’s design meaning.

Artefact Explanation: The dictionary of enlightenment is a collaboration project about Wendy’s favorite song, ‘Just one last dance’ by Sarah Connor. She calls this song her Enlightenment of the English as she was just starting to learn the language at that period of time. The design of this cd cover entails the prominent words and it’s meaning stylized in a dictionary format as a tribute to what the song meant to her. The hand drawn typography on the background symbolizes the era of which the song was being released, whereby Anti-digital was the current design trend. (2000s) The color blue is associated with what Wendy portrayed this song to be for her, which was emotional/sadness as well as the color black and grey. The artefact was being taken at the entrance of a record shop as the relevant context and to also show the contrast between the dark/light with the light shining on the cover.