Collage to Dodecahedron: consumerism in the Chinese culture

Improved Version:

After the in class critique, I have found many ways to make my dodecahedron better in conveying my message. So I decided to work on it a little more to highlight the excess use of plastic in the consumerism culture of China. Below are images of the newly finished dodecahedron I have worked in the past few days.

Apart from cutting the bubble tea cup into smaller pieces and connecting them to the dodecahedron with threads, I have colored the exterior into black. For the version before, the exterior was white, the original color of the drawing paper. However, with the interior painted blue and purple, it is hard to distinguish the bubble teach cup pieces from the interior and the exterior. Therefore, by painting the exterior black, the viewer can focus more on the interior and the bubble tea pieces.

 

---

 

The first project made in Space/Materiality class is a collage/photomontage that represents an exaggerated aspect or element in one’s own culture. Then we are taught to create a paper dodecahedron that relates to the theme of our collage.

I come from Beijing, China. According to Wikipedia, the city has been the capital of China for three thousand years. Most importantly, it has witnessed the rapid development of China in the recent thirty or forty years. One industry that plays a huge part in this fast moving economy is the food industry.

Food has always been a huge part of the Chinese culture and probably many other cultures around the globe. However, I do observe a fun fact that Chinese restaurants often have longer menus than say, an Italian or French restaurant. Moreover, Chinese tend to share most dishes while other cultures have a set of meal or a plate containing the portion of food for each dining individual. Therefore, the Chinese culture has developed numerous types of dim sum, snacks, staple food, vegetables, and so on so forth.

It came to my attention of the consumerism  demonstrated in food a couple of years ago. A shopping opened close to where I live in Beijing two years ago. It has two lower levels and six levels above the ground. However, it is striking to see how much portion of space is dedicated to the food and eating venders.

The entire lowers levels are dedicated to an underground food court where people can walk around and grab a bit of this or a bit of that. Then from the second floor and above, about half of the floor plan is filled with all sorts of restaurants. Apart from the costumers waiting outside of each restaurant for a seat, it is normal to see “take out guys (快递小哥)” waiting in a separate line around the counter for deliveries other customer ordered online.

It is with those deliveries that I realized how many supplies (not to mention food here) are wasted in the food take out industry. With each delivery order, dishes are put into separate boxes made of paper or plastic, complementary utensils are supplied, napkins, and then there is the outer layer of bag (paper or plastic).

It is okay if one just uses the necessary amount of supplies for the items listed above, however, it has never been the case since online food delivery orders went popular. Every single merchant in the mall is competing for customers. Even though the Chinese culture has countless type of food  to produce, it is always easier to just work on the graphics, designs, and innovations on the packaging of the take out boxes/bags/napkins. Therefore, odd shapes of boxes are produces for different types of food. For example, a salad shop would have separate boxes for the vegetables, beans, salad sauce, and add on ingredients (if you ordered.) Also, another merchant only sells eel over rice and several soft drinks. So they designed their take out boxes to be the shape of their logo, which is a rounded version of an eel.

Another excessive use of materials is the supply of napkins for each take out order. Yes, customers would definitely complain if there is no nakpink at all or merely one piece of napkin that comes along with the delivery; but what most merchants in the mall do is to take a stack (about 20 to 30) napkins and throw into the take out bag. This is great, you order take out once a week and you don’t have to buy napkins anymore. However, most people who order take out deliver to  their workplaces. How odd it would be to have a huge container full of different napkins from different restaurants he or she ordered from?

Therefore, I created my collage based on the theme of the exaggerated use of napkins. On the 12′ x 18′ surface, I used napkins I collected from places all over the City and cut outs from magazines of food.

This is also an interactive piece as one can flip open the cover page and see the surface underneath. The cover page has a huge space cut out so one can also see through without flipping to peak inside. The design is almost like a take out menu it self to reinforce the consumerism culture in China.

Then at the upper right corner of the collage, I put a cup noodle lid which says “LIFT HERE” at the bottom. I did so to remind the viewers that this is an interactive piece and one can actually lift up the front page and see what is beneath it. The idea of instant noodle also fits into the theme of exaggerated. Instant noodles or cup noodles are products that can only be used once and functions in its singularity while instant features. However, the cost of making and degrading the container is far more complicated than the simple consumption of it.

Back to the overuse of take out boxes and bags, to make the boxes and paper bags look “cool” and “professional,” the merchants often use thick, durable plastics. It would be a wonderful idea if these well designed boxes can be re-used several times, however, the small logos at the bottom of the boxes indicates that they are one time only. So even if the customer would like to clean the boxes after eating and re-use them, they are not able to.

One particular example that can be seen here in the U.S. is bubble tea, boba tea, or simply milk tea. Popularized in the recent two years, bubble tea shops have been invading all over the City. Long lines can be seen outside of a newly opened milk tea shop. This is only seen in America but also seen in Beijing. Young people these days would spend their weekend or free time standing hours in a line just to get a cup of bubble tea costing 14-20 RMB ($2-$3.) Then they don’t really drink them but rather take tons of selfies with them or simply of the milk teas.

Therefore, I focused on bubble tea and how the plastic cups are overused in my culture for the design and making of the dodecahedron.

Inside the dodecahedron, I cut out an actual bubble tea cup and washed it thoroughly. I used acrylic to mimic the appearance of the cup with milk tea and bubbles in it so it looks like an actual cup of milk tea. Then I simply let the pieces rumbling inside the dodecahedron to show how these cups are literally everywhere in the city where I come from.

It is not noticed by many but all of the bubble teas were sold as take outs. This mean with each cup of tea you buy, you get a plastic bag, a straw, and a plastic cup, even if the shop has places to sit and enjoy. Therefore, I used the plastic bag  that comes long to decorate the hollow spaces of my dodecahedron.

For some spaces, I cut the piece of plastic in smaller strands and some I used in a piece as a whole. I cut out small pieces from the larger piece for variation in the style and also to break the initial design of the bubble tea brand.

As a reflection for the project as a whole, I would say I did pretty well on time management. I utilized all class time to finish my two pieces of work and the only outside class time I spent was on searching for and purchasing materials.

However, if I were given another opportunity to do this project I would spend more time thinking about the design of my dodecahedron. As discussed in critique in class, the inside of the dodecahedron could be filled with more objects, presumably more milk tea cups. Another way I thought of is to use sewing techniques to fix the pieces in the space within the dodecahedron. 🙂