Kara Livermore

Over this semester I think one of the best aspects was working within groups. I personally am not very good at working in groups and generally prefer working on my own however I found this experience really valuable as when working in a group I felt like there was so many new ideas and ways of thinking that I wouldn't have thought of myself. It almost felt overwhelming the amount of ideas we came up with. The absolute best thing though was becoming friends with the people I was working with.

The FOOD event also taught me to see design in a broader context. It isn't always something you see but something designed could be felt, heard, touched. A persons entire interaction with their environment could be designed and this was a real eye-opener to the possibilities of design.

An aspect of the event which was challenging was coming up with an idea that would please most people. For example when it came to the food I think fruit or vegetables became one of the best options as there are rarely any issues with allergies, it is fairly cheap and simple and I think this event made me appreciate simple food even more and had me thinking about how things don't always need to be really extravagant. Even though the fruit salad was really yummy I didn't feel like the event was necessarily about the fruit salad but rather the process of creating the event, socialising with groups and seeing what everyone produced. I think that is what I am more likely to remember.

The event itself was really fun and it was great seeing the different creative approaches each group had made. It was overall a really great, fairly relaxing day.

CRAFT Craft was a really good module to start with as I found it helped form the ideas that were presented to the core project. It brought to mind morals and values in how we eat and how big of an impact food has on our lives and the earth. Illustration is one of my favourite things and I really enjoyed creating something that would then be printed on wood, although I was uneasy about the results due to unfamiliarity with wood printing.

STRATEGY The strategy module gave me that analytical sense which I will try harder to keep in mind when designing. Although the module itself was perhaps a bit dull/not creative in terms of the work involved I still found it interesting learning about all the work that goes into creating a successful brand and it is certainly something I want to learn more about.

The final event had a really great atmosphere and I enjoyed myself a lot. It was really nice to walk and talk to the Queen Vic Market to purchase our fruits and the fruit salad was really yummy! I really enjoyed seeing what everyone made and overall it was definitely a success. 

When trying to illustrate the ugly fruits I first attempted a realistic approach with lots of shading. I didn’t like the way these turned out however and so tried a more abstract, flat style that I feel added more personality and a bit of quirk.

The buyer’s guide my group has decided to make provides information about seasonal fruits, the benefits of buying organic and purchasing “ugly” fruits that are reduced in price. I was given the task of creating “ugly fruit” illustrations using watercolours.

I had brought my watercolours into class the day we decided on what we would make for the event and this lead to the group playing around painting little fruits and my eventual role in the group.

It turns out it was difficult to get hold of stallholders for an interview as they seemingly weren’t interested and so we decided to focus our guide elsewhere.

I found the futures brief really interesting. The idea of creating a design to be photographed within context that tells the story of a song as well as the person who holds the song special.

The song my partner chose was So Sick by Ne-yo. I had never spoken to my partner before and I enjoyed meeting someone new. It was also a challenge to interview them and pick up on body language and then trying to express how they were feeling completely and concisely in the first task.

The second task allowed a lot of creative freedom and I enjoyed the storytelling aspect to it. I decided to do a digital design that showed distance however a special connection.

I printed this off and cut it out with a scalpel. My partner always wears a pastel pink cap and her story was from when she was a young teen and so I felt pastel pink was an appropriate colour. I really enjoyed hearing my partners story and I hope I did justice to it. I ended up taking the picture of the image placed on the white line of a road at night. I think the nighttime reflects loneliness in a way and the line of the road shows distance as well as referencing the airport, where my partner first heard the song.

I chose to study Cadbury’s business and design strategy as I always find their products eye catching, playful and they have been very successful. Their newest icons, packaging and advertising I especially love.

I found the strategy module really interesting and I am looking forward to studying business and design strategy further. I feel like it l has made me more focussed on the reasoning towards the design rather than pure aesthetic as well as how the design can change the whole way the user interacts with the product.

I also learnt about customer segmentation through this study and how by separating customers into certain categories it can be easier to specifically target them with different designs/products.

I collaged the lined drawings I made in my sketchbook using Photoshop into the shape of a human. Showing that “you are what you eat” and how each part of my body is essentially made up of what I put into it. I then coloured the lines using Photoshop focussing on using natural colours. It then got sent to print and this was the final result!

The “Exquisite Course” specialist class asked for students to create an illustration to be printed on wood that visually communicated a message about what food means to them. In one of the classes our teacher had everyone bring in some food and we were allowed to play with it on the table creating anything we want. Jacinta and I worked on the this piece in the photo above. A very spunky Hawaiian girl who lives underwater making friends with all the sherbet bomb fish. It was a really playful class which I enjoyed a lot and the activity inspired my illustration.

I decided to approach this illustration by recording what I eat over a number of days and illustrating these foods. This created a fairly clear message about my food choices as I don’t eat any animal or animal by-product.

I collaged the lined drawings I made in my sketchbook using Photoshop into the shape of a human. Showing that “you are what you eat” and how each part of my body is essentially made up of what I put into it. I then coloured the lines using Photoshop focussing on using natural colours. It then got sent to print and this was the final result!

Instant Coffee

“Instant Coffee is a service oriented artist collective based founded in Toronto, and now based in both Vancouver and Toronto. Instant Coffee developed, in part, as a response to the division and exaggerated difference between studio and exhibition practice. Through formal installations and event based activities, it builds a public place to practice, where ideas, materials and actions can be explored outside of the isolated studio and in a manner that renegotiates traditional exhibition structures, but is still supported by them.”

One of the things I really like about Instant Coffee is their idea that “It Doesn’t Have To Be Good To Be Meaningful”. Everyone knows instant coffee isn’t high quality but as the collective says “quality is too particular and preferences change and instant coffee barely resembles the real thing, but its effect is equivalent”. This idea could be used within our own FOOD project. We don’t need to create fancy, complex food but something simple would have a similar effect, bringing the group together to share some food and having the experience of the process.

Studio 1 - PROGRESSIVE

Today during class our group took a walk up to the Queen Victoria Market to work out the most efficient way to get there and how long it would take. It took approximately 12 minutes at a slow pace of walking. The streets were narrow and so moving 70 people we would have to walk in lines of 2-3. 

We thought we could collectively create arrows as a way of leaving breadcrumbs to show the way from the Queen Victoria Market to the RMIT Alumni Court. The symbol doesn’t necessarily have to be an arrow but perhaps triangles or footprints on the ground showing direction.

Nikola Tosic’s event meet in a nice restaurant is an unofficial event taking place in always a different place and it is about meeting people in a nice restaurant.

Andy challenged us to meet in a nice restaurant in our own groups and document the process. Jasper, Jacinta and I went and got drinks at a cafe near Melbourne Central. The process was fairly simple, the use of social media apps and Jaspers knowledge of the location of the cafe made it fairly easy to plan, meet and walk there together. 

“have tea not war” tea gathering by Mai Ueda in the Tawaraya boxing ring by Masanori Umeda. The gathering was held R & Company, New York on the 27th November 2015

What I really liked about this gathering was that it brought participants into the artwork and had them act as part of the artwork. The separation of these participants to the observers was made by having the participants put on panda onesies which adds playfulness.

Tokyo Picnic Club was founded in 2002, the groups aim is to redefine the idea of a “picnic” within the context of present day urban Tokyo. 

Tokyo Picnic Club has created a set of rules to follow when at a picnic such as “Food can be simple but should never be too easy.”, “Everyday is a picnic day.” and “Accidents are a part of picnic. Happenings such as a sudden storm, falling into a pond, a bird carrying off your meal, are not good reasons for being upset.” After reading these rules we created our own set of rules for the Soup Kitchen. I think rules like this are helpful when trying to define the atmosphere of what you want an event to be like. Tokyo Picnic Club’s rules are a playful and provide a lighthearted atmosphere. Tokyo Picnic Club also changes the ways one may view a picnic and allows for picnics to be held in areas where one may not normally picnic for example their “Grass on Vacation” gives lovely green grass to sit on in an otherwise pure dirt environment. The group states that “Tokyo doesn't have enough open spaces to provide amenity, in its highly dense urban circumstances.” The club insists that that everybody has the right to Picnic.

I don’t see many picnics being held in Melbourne and I haven’t really been to a picnic many times, which I think is a shame. 

FOOD was a non-for-profit, conceptual restaurant co-founded by Gordon Matta-Clark, Tina Girouard and Carol Goodden in SoHo, New York in the 1970′s. 

The idea was to bring the artistic community together, providing a space for artists to eat and talk. It also inspired artists to create with food. 

Mark di Suvero proposed a meal that would be “dished through the front windows by crane and eaten using screwdrivers, hammers, and chisels.” Matta-Clark also created meals that ventured in between edible and inedible, he made “Matta-Bones” a meal in which oxtail soup, stuffed bones, marrow and frogs legs were served. The leftover bones were then carved into necklaces for the customer by artist Hisachika Takahashi.

I think the great thing about FOOD is that it breaks the boundaries on conventional meals. It creates a space that serves food that is about more than the food itself. These ideas could certainly be included into our project where the food we serve could become art. 

1. Soups should be simple

2. Be mindful of usage

3. Spills happen

4. Leftover should be taken and given to people who need it

5. Bring your own bowl and cutlery

6. Allergens must be clearly stated

7. Colourful cups encouraged

8. Soup is for everyone

9. Can not be too hot or too cold

The class also discussed the possibility of having a feedback mechanism in the form of a space allowed for participants to comment on or draw their experience.