izzy1262-blog

[izzy1262-blog]

What Interests Me?

Having recently moved to London from Portugal I noticed many cultural differences. Back home I was considered to be extremely English, I went to an English International school, my father is British and I mostly spoke to my friends in English. But after moving here for university to do my foundation year I realised I wasn’t as British as I thought. I didn’t understand any of the slang, people thought I had a funny accent and any time I blurted anything out in Portuguese people would try an answer back in an awful Spanish accent (or asked if I was speaking Russian). This change of environment was something that I had wanted for years, back home I had gone to the same school from nursery all the way through to the IB and I really couldn't wait for a change of pace and to focus entirely on a subject that interested me heavily. However, this change was a lot more different than I could have expected, I thought that I would have just blended right in, that the humour, food and culture would be the same, however I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Looking back on it now, yes, I had gone to a british school but around 80% of the students were Portuguese, English was mainly spoken in lesson times and as soon as you left school you would be surrounded by Portuguese people and cuisine. My mother grew up in the countryside of Portugal, and that whole side of my family absolutely adore food. Whenever we all get together it is always over lunches and dinners which last for hours, allowing us to bond over good food and great company. These meals are some of the fondest memories I have with my extended family and are always a sat down ocasion huddled together in the dining room until everyone has lost track of time.

Since these meals were a bit more rare, my mum always tried to get my closer family all sat together for breakfast and dinner everyday.

After having moved to university, I realised my eating habits slowly started getting worse and worse. Breakfast now swapped out for sugary cereals (or my new found love for bagels), lunch accompanied by a bag of crisps and my usual mid afternoon packet of dark chocolate digestives. I hadn’t realised how bad it was until I went back home from Christmas. I felt tired all the time and craved the foods that I had been exposed to at university.

I realised food wasn’t really used as a tool of communication here and that meals were kept short for convenience especially at school or work where no one really knew each other or wanted to get back to work quickly. After christmas I joined the local gym and really started focusing on getting my eating habits straight again. I started becoming really aware of the things I put in my body, and regained my interest in food and fitness. However I started noticing that these aren’t the most popular choices at university, for example, ordering a side salad instead of chips at the pub got me a lot of comments and laughs.

These experiences I have noticed and lived through these past few months interest me greatly as a starting point for this project. The whole change of environment and country made me see how different communities and cultures act around food and how it's such a great part of everyone's lives. I was influenced to look at this area after going through this culture shock, I hadn’t realised how meal times and fitness were so important to my family and I, and how it all changed once I moved away. I want to research more into this area of food and fitness since it has been such a great part of my life without even realising it.

Word Count- 648

[izzy1262-blog]

Contextual Refrences

When I started researching and looking further into my research of food and communal eating, I began to think of the most common objects and items within the area; tableware.

Although seemingly an obvious link, I started to realise how little I know about the subject. With the rise of fast food and eating on the go, plates and cups are becoming more obsolete, often being replaced with plastic or paper packaging, however one thing I use everyday is cutlery. The more I started to think about it, the more I fascinated I became wondering why we were stuck with the same distinctive shapes over so many years, and why they were chosen over others.

The earliest eating utensil to be used is thought to be the spoon. Humans used to use things such as shells or wooden chips. Wood was used because it was widely available and didn’t cost as much as metals to produce, although metals like bronze and silver started being used for the wealthy in Greek and Roman empires. Knives have been around since prehistoric times, mostly used as weapons. Knives remained sharp even at the dinner table until the Bourbon Dynasty in France where they were rounded into the more common shape we see today. Forks were a later creation and became extremely popular throughout Europe which then spread to America in the 1850s.

Through my research of my day to day used utensils I wanted to look at how other cultures adapted to their eating habits through these objects. In China, chopsticks were most commonly used for cooking, until China’s population started increasing massively and money saving policies were introduced. Food had to be cut up into smaller bits which meant that less cooking fuel was used. These bite sized pieces meant that knives weren’t necessary and instead chopsticks became popular to eat with. Confucius, a chinese philosopher, thought that knives were too violent at the table, he thought that it would bring up thoughts of death at the table where happiness should instead be the main emotion. I thought this was interested, to see how an object could evoke so many emotions and change the way people looked at food and how it could change eating habits.

Chopsticks are also thought to be better eating utensils since it forces the user to slow down consumption when comparing to a fork or spoon which resemble shovels and permit a heavy load of food to be eaten at once. I began to look at how designers are attempting to change eating habits and introduce a slow eating movement by changing such staple objects in our everyday lives.

Steinbeisser, an Amsterdam design studio, have created alternative designs to popular cutlery hoping to introduce the slow eating movement mentioned. Each of the pieces made by the 35 artist collective, are intended to make the food more awkward to eat, thus slowing you down by trying to figure out how the new utensils work. When thinking about my topic, and how my diet got worse once I moved away from home, I realised it was mostly due to the fact that I was living alone. Not having the long meal times with my family, was causing me to eat mindlessly.

I started looking into the idea of mindless eating, and saw that designer Marije Vogelzang created tableware specifically to combat this problem. She made objects by coating stones in food and heat safe silicone, which are put in the plate of food, taking up a significant amount of space. This idea is to make people think that their plate is full, which in turn makes them feel full. Tableware and cutlery have been the same for centuries, Vogelzang is creating objects that can aid solving so many of the problems we are facing today like obesity through 3D design, changing the way we view history and everyday objects.

Word Count: 650

Resources:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-history-of-western-eating-utensils-from-the-scandalous-fork-to-the-incredible-spork-64593179/

- https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/silver-spoons/

- http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/10/history-spoons-forks-knives/

- http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/design/2012/06/the_history_of_the_fork_when_we_started_using_forks_and_how_their_design_changed_over_time_.html

- https://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/a-brief-history-of-chopsticks

- https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/11/marije-vogelzang-tackles-mindless-food-consumption-odd-shaped-tableware/?li_source=LI&li_medium=bottom_block_1

- https://www.dezeen.com/2016/08/14/absurd-jouw-cutlery-experimental-gastronomy-food-event-steinbeisser/

- https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/11/marije-vogelzang-tackles-mindless-food-consumption-odd-shaped-tableware/?li_source=LI&li_medium=bottom_block_1

- http://www.bamfords-auctions.co.uk/archive/ThreeDay-Antiques-and-Fine-Art-Sale--December-2010/lot-657/

- https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-us/auction-catalogues/david-lay-f-r-i-c-s/catalogue-id-srdavid10015/lot-ada62744-9ec8-424f-8281-a434016247d7

[izzy1262-blog]

Relating To My Area

Through this research I realised how interested I am in our increased appetites as a population and how different cultures react to this increasing epidemic. The growing need for combating mindless eating and trying to convince people to eat slower is something that I really want to look further into because I have recently been exposed to my worsening behaviour towards food.

I believe that it relates greatly to my area of 3D design since there are so many objects used daily connected to food (including cutlery and tableware), and how design can affect behaviours and help people for the better. Although I have not explored many similar concepts before, I believe that this is a good subject to look into since it is so personal to me and will allow me to look into different areas of 3D design that I haven’t looked at before. I will be able to use many materials and techniques that I have learnt on the course so far such as wood and metal work, as well as learning some new techniques which will help the project be the best I can make it.

Word Count- 190