Integrative Studio 1: Memory – Project 3: Fantasy Organization
Part 1: Future / Fantastical Business Card
Individual mood board:
Process of making business cards:
Shared google doc – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wS0PHBMQHz7sChwzSpdxk5s7U1XjTKNUltZSu7nhl9w/edit?usp=sharing
Finished business cards (GROUP):
Part 2: PechaKucha Presentations (in Class)
Article 1: Brief History and Significance of American Diners
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-life-devoted-to-the-american-diner-472278/
The American Diner is a hallmark of American culture in the past, present, and future and essentially just one slice of the foodservice business that we interpret.
The history of the diner began in Providence—with a horse-drawn wagon, a menu, and a dream. In 1872, an enterprising man named Walter Scott introduced the first “night lunch wagon.” Coming out at dusk, the lunch wagons would pick up business after restaurants closed, serving workers on the late shift, newspapermen, theatergoers, anyone out and about after dark and hungry for an inexpensive hot meal. A fellow would get his food from the wagon’s window and eat sitting on the curb. Gaining popularity, the lunch wagons evolved into “rolling restaurants,” with a few seats added within, first by Samuel Jones in 1887. Folks soon started referring to them as “lunch cars,” which then became the more genteel-sounding “dining cars,” which was then, around 1924, shortened to the moniker “diner.”
One distinction between a diner and a coffee shop is that the former is traditionally factory-built and transported to its location, rather than constructed on-site.
If you go to a diner, yes, it’s a quick experience but it’s not an anonymous experience.
That intangible, yet distinctive sense of community captures the ordinary person’s story. In diners, you get people from all walks of life, a real cross-section. And while any menu around the country can be counted on for staples like ham and eggs and meatloaf—and, back in the day, pickled tongue and asparagus on toast—a region’s local flavor is also represented by its diners’ cuisine
The changing times are reflected in the diner menu, too: the Washington, D.C. chain Silver Diner introduced “heart-healthy” items in 1989 and recently announced that it would supply its kitchens with locally grown foods.
To traditionalists, such as Richard Gutman (who restores and preserves historic landmarks such as the American diner) Diners with kitsch, games, gumball machines or other “junk” are not true. They believe that people don’t go there to be transported into an arcade, they go to be served some food and to eat. It’s a friendly place, usually mom-and-pop with a sole proprietor, that serves basic, home-cooked, fresh food, for good value.
Article 2: Bubble or ‘Boba’ Tea phenomenon in Los Angeles
https://www.laweekly.com/how-boba-became-an-integral-part-of-asian-american-culture-in-los-angeles/
In the early 1990s, boba milk tea in Los Angeles was just sweet tea in a thick Styrofoam cup, mixed with nondairy creamer, ice and a spoonful of black tapioca pearls, which the staff kept in a bucket of syrup on the bottom shelf of a fridge. It could be found only in Taiwanese restaurants, and you had to ask for it.
In the late 1990s, the first dedicated boba tea shop in Los Angeles County opened inside a food court in Arcadia, and by the early 2000s, a slew of shops dedicated to the beverage had opened. They concentrated in the San Gabriel Valley, where there was, and still is, a significant Taiwanese and Chinese community.
Today, nearly every block in the Valley has a boba shop, whereby Boba has become an integral part of Asian-American culture in Los Angeles.
Invented in the 1980s in Taiwan, the word “boba” or “Pearls” refers to the thick, black chewy bits nestled at the bottom of a cold, usually milky drink. They are made with sugar and tapioca flour. Tapioca, which is derived from the cassava root, is native to South America but was brought to Taiwan by the Portuguese. It was traditionally served as a sweet, gelatinous dessert.
The term boba now refers exclusively to the tapioca we all know and love. It’s cooked in sweet syrup and put in a cup of cold tea, sugar and nondairy creamer (the latter is an industry-standard, given that most East Asians are lactose-intolerant).
From Taiwan, the boba beverage spread to Taiwanese enclaves in North America. Boba tea became the de facto terminology in California. Elsewhere, such as Vancouver and New York, the term bubble tea is the norm.
Boba culture is even stronger in Los Angeles than in Taiwan. In Taiwan, while boba shops are still a mainstay, there are few sit-down places dedicated to the drink. In terms of spots catering to the younger generation, Taipei boasts more coffee joints than tea. In the states, it is a fusion of both Asian and American cultures and was a defining culture for asian American or Taiwanese-Americans – particularly in the 90s. Even today it symbolizes the melting pot of cultures that is the United States.
Link to presentation (timed: 20 secs each slide)
Part 3: MONUMENT/MEMORIAL/PUBLIC ART PIECE
Individual task:
Monument Lab:
Episode 19: “Missing Democracy with Coco Guzman” – New Monuments for New cities Part 3
Summary of chosen episode:
Coco Guzman is a Spanish-Canadian queer artist based in Toronto. Guzman draws, documents, and gathers stories that are public and intimate. They created Missing Democracy – modeled after pet posters posted on utility poles and community bulletin boards – where a Grumpy-looking Cat stands in for democracy. I chose this particular episode, not only because I enjoy a bit of humor in artwork and I have a special affinity towards animals in general, but mainly due to the fact that I appreciate how Guzman created an unconventional monument that intervenes into public space, and leaves traces or at least questions on issues of political significance.
In the podcast, a representative of Monument Lab spoke with Guzman about their approach to working on and in public spaces. Particularly how memory can be monumental in subtle, purposeful ways. When asked why Guzman chose to format their monument in this unexpected way, they mentioned how the traditional idea of a monument, “which is like this thing that is very permanent and usually made of concrete and sculptures and statues”, did not correspond to what fascinated them at the time. Guzman was looking at the ways people leave traces of their intimate life or their house life, onto the streets. Besides having a pet themselves and showing commitment to looking out for missing cats or missing dogs in their neighborhood, Guzman mentioned how these missing pet posters also provide a glimpse of the household of which the pet belongs to. Because of the name of the cat, because of the things they like, because of the words they use, the emotions they put in the creation of this poster, where the poster is distributed, et cetera. They also mentioned how it works as a kind of memory because then the pet may be hopefully be found but most posters still remain.
Research images related to chosen episode:
Continued Group Work:
Monument proposal:
(Jillian a.k.a me)
A specific location for installation. Explanation as to why:
Seeing as our monument aims to address the disturbing correlation between the success of the fast food industry and the rise in dietary illnesses, we wanted it to be located near the place that started it all – the very first McDonald’s restaurant. Although there are some who mistaken the original McDonald’s for its first franchise, which was opened by salesman Ray Kroc on April 15, 1955, in Des Plaines, Illinois, historically the very first McDonald’s burger joint, that was owned and developed by brothers Maurice (“Mac”) and Richard McDonald, is actually located on 1398 North E Street in San Bernardino, California.
The property has since been purchased by the owner of local chicken restaurant Juan Pollo and converted into a museum. Dubbed the Original McDonald’s museum, it not only houses recognizable memorabilia from the early beginnings of the now-iconic brand, but it boasts the same (if not slightly altered) the late 1940s to early 1950s retro exterior. Therefore it is considered somewhat of a historical landmark and tourist destination. With there being strict laws prohibiting us from trespassing, let alone introducing, a monument directly on the property, we have considered using the empty lot that is directly adjacent to it, on 1399 North E Street.
(Ellie)
Summary of the event(s) in question:
In 1948 in San Bernardino, California, Maurice and Richard McDonald started the first McDonald’s restaurant. Ray Krox took interest in their fast-selling burgers and milkshakes and discovered that taking out the need for service could make the food cheaper and without the customer self-service bar faster. Hamburgers started to be made ahead of time and warmed with heat lamps. The second McDonald’s was made in 1955 and reached over 1,000 within that decade. The chain became international by 1967, and by the early 21st century was operating more than 35,000 outlets. As McDonald’s food chains grew, so did America’s obesity rate.
(Juliett)
Explanation of why your group is best suited for this project:
Because we want to continue our theme of food. And promote healthy eating
Description of who and for what the monument/memorial is for:
Speaking from the future: The monument is to raise awareness of eating habits to the people from 2019. In the year we are today, obesity rates in America are over the top. Almost 1 in 3 teenagers are obese due to the social media hit of Space food (pre-made meals), the inclining business of rocket eats (uber-eats, fast food delivery business) and the brain-washing social media influence such as “munchmuch”( mukbang – consuming mass amount of food). Therefore we decided to create a monument depicting this social issue of obesity in 2019. The year where these old businesses and trends such as uber-eats, mukbang are still young and challengeable for the greater good of the future.
(Tom)
Materials descriptions. Mediums. Why:
Japanese restaurants have been using fake foods also know as food replica model to present their food in a three-dimensional experience. To make the replica model as realistic as possible, wax, plastic, and resin are most commonly used. Acrylic and polycarbonate are one of the strongest plastics. The strongest advantage of using plastic is since the monument is multi-dimensional, the durability of the material is essential.
Dimensions. Why?:
We would like to give a customer mystical and fantastical experience as if you are walking into the house from the story “Hensel and Gretel”. Therefore, the monument is 50m tall from the ground to the tip of the ice cream cone. And the diameter of the tunnel is 8m wide.
Finished Monument model:
Reflection (overall):
All in all, one of the main takeaways from this project was that group projects do not always have to be such a hassle! I was so lucky to have been placed in a group with great team members who always made time to complete each assignment, contributed in any way possible (even when not asked to) and went above and beyond to create work we were all proud to showcase. This project was an interesting journey to say the least, considering that we as a group had to develop a fantastical fictional business, along with an official business card and model, and then eventually develop a monument that is tied into our business somehow. From the critiques, all of our classmates commended the cohesiveness of our projects and made a point to connect the quality of the work to the tight collaboration that occurred during the development process. In particular, I felt that the business card concept we created together truly showcased how much each of was dedicated to the project and how much fun we ended up having making it! If there was anything I could change, I would say that we could have scaled up our monument a bit more and perhaps providing some means of context (such as location information in the form of a background).