Food Space
year 2 studio 5201IN+year 3 studio 6301IN
semester 2, 2007 weeks 1-9
Kathy Waghorn and Lotte Wotherspoon
WEEK 1: UTENSIL WEEKS 2-4: FOOD PACE WEEKS 5-8: FOOD SPACE WEEK 9: FINAL CRIT
WEEK 1: UTENSIL
Utensil Show + Tell
Monday 30 July
Pin up 9:30am, commences 10am sharp.
Building 1 Library Foyer.
Banquet
Building 1 Library Foyer
Bring : Eating Tool + Prepared dish
Arrive : set up 5pm Monday 30 July, banquet begins 6pm
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever tried to eat chocolate with a knife and fork? An orange with chopsticks? Or noodles with a teaspoon? Have you thought there must be an easier way of eating spaghetti? Well here’s your chance to design a new tool for eating!
BRIEF
Your task is to design a tool for eating. First you must decide what food you want to prepare and eat, then you must come up with a unique way of eating it.
Keep in mind that EATING is the conceptual starting point. Choose a dish and then make it. Analyse your food and how you eat it. Your analysis will give you a direction and will support your position.
RESEARCH
• The historical, cultural, social norms of eating
• The connection between food and utensil.
• The materiality and form of utensils in relation to their functional requirements.
• The spatial environment and its relationship to the object (and vice versa)
HAND-IN
x1 Eating Tool
x 1 Prepared food (see banquet instructions below)
And anything else that supports your design: Sketches, models, written and visual research, video, photographs…
CONSIDER
Utensils throughout history have been composed of a variety of materials - stone, clay, bone, ivory, wood, plant fibers, glass, and metal. These various materials illustrate the cultural development of food technologies for storing, preparing, cooking, serving and eating of food. Today fast foods are accompanied by plastic utensils or disposable chopsticks reflecting a preference for convenience over sustainability. Upmarket restaurants serving fine cuisine often favour heavy silverware in an effort to promote an image of style and sophistication. The materials used to produce utensils say as much about the social setting in which they are being used as they do about the food being served.
Utensils have a physical relationship with the body. Utensils help to keep the body clean, and stop the transmission of dirt or germs from the hands to the mouth. Utensils can usually be held comfortably, and fit safely inside the mouth. However, if you have ever watched someone learning to use chopsticks you will know how physically challenging it can be to use unfamiliar utensils for the first time!
In most societies there are codes of conduct governing the proper and correct way to use utensils. You may want to invent your own set of rules on how to use your utensils. Below is an step by step guide written specifically for Americans wanting instruction on how to use a knife and fork in England:
Step One:
Pick up the knife with your right hand and the fork with the left, with the handles in the palms of your hands.
Step Two:
Ensure that the sharp edge of the knife and the tines of the fork are pointing towards the plate.
Step Three:
Place the index finger of your right hand along the top edge of the knife. Position the index finger of your left hand on the back of the fork.
Step Four:
Spear food with the fork and cut with the knife, pushing the food with the knife against the tines of the fork.
Step Five:
Lift food to your mouth with the fork, always keeping the tines pointing down.
Step Six:
Rest the cutlery on your plate at a position of 20 past 8, if you want to take a drink. After drinking, pick up both knife and fork again simultaneously.
(from http://www.ehow.com)
FILM SCREENING
In Wednesday studio time this week we will show a selection of films about food. Room 2144 from 9:30, byo popcorn.
AN INVITATION TO A BANQUET . . .
On the evening of Monday 30 July we will have a banquet in the building 1 Library Foyer.
You must bring your eating tool and the dish that you made it for. We will be using video to document you eating your dish with your tool. We will then all be having dinner together, with the School of Design providing dessert! The briefing for the next part of this project will take place at the banquet.
Please set up at 5pm Monday 30 July, the banquet begins 6pm. Dress is formal!
