Project 3: Space Changer

In the final assignment of my Space and Material class, we are asked to select a theme and change our space (classroom) using elements related to the theme. For presentation, we are asked to serve a meal. I am cooperating with Martina and Avi, two enthusiastic and inspiring human being in our class. We three set up the theme of “discomfort” at the first day of the collaboration. When we think about the ways of presentation. The first group of elements we come up with includes gelatin with weird color, and noisy background sound with discomforting scenes.

For food that we will be serving, we decide to use gelatin in disgusting color (such as dark blue or dark green) with tools that are hard to use. We were planning to serve it with oyster shell, but the plan is immediately denied since it may cause food poisoning. At last we decide to serve a small amount of gelatin in a long paper cup, and our customers will eat them using a straw from 711 that has a tiny spoon at the end, so that the gelatin is hard to be grabbed from the cup.

As for setup, I initially plan to lay the desks in front of the screen, and ‘insert’ people under the desk, and wrap the desk with tapes so they cannot easily get out. However, I am going too far and about to be ‘torture’. After testing with my group members, our second plan is to put two people under one desk, and push the desk against the wall, and the bar in front of them makes them unable to get out. At last, we decide to make the bar against the wall, and after people crawl under the desk, we will push a stool in front of them so they will not be able to get out. Four tables are close to each others, which makes people under the desks more difficult to move.

We are also introduced to make plaster objects and bring them into our service. We make three Hexagonal Anti-prism in different sizes, and we make them as pedestals. I find myself really participated in this step because I help my group to figure out how to make the paper mode using campus. I also make the plaster in medium size.

 

I also participated in the design of our meal course. I search an image of fly online, and threshold it in Photoshop, and add letters on it. Avi then edits the meal course by adding description of our meal (link:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KDz57_7LC4XOTYZiJfcA4o31_x1C8Dh8ULOfrQNOFuo/edit).

Everything goes as we wish on our final presentation day. Before our presentation, we bring everything we need. Martina and I divide three kinds of gelatin (red raspberry, green lemon, and brown banana) together into eight cups, and they look disgusting when they are put together (which is exactly what we want them to be). The video and audio made by Martina are played on the projectile and on the screen. We then turn off all the light except a hot bright lamp on the floor. Finally, we lead our poor participants under the desks, and serve them with gelatin in a small, hot, and crowded space. After the serving, the feedback we get is positive since the service makes our participants feel uncomfortable. We are sorry to serve them like that, but at the same time we are happy that we achieve our goals by such a great collaboration. I learn to change the factors such as sound and light to change the whole atmosphere in a stable place, and correspondingly change people’s feeling. In general, I have learned a lot in this project and in this course.

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