#livinglab

My small exhibit space at their event "Au Fil du Plastique" let me share my project with around 200 people. I did roughly 80 presentations and 42 separate workshop tests which accelerated my edible packaging concept into a stronger and more appealing design.

Just a quick background - Carrefour Numerique² is in Cité des sciences et de l’industrie and they host many different events and exhibits throughout the year. They have an open Fab Lab space with 3d printers, laser cutters and  they host maker talks and science exhibits. Luck was on my side this year because they were hosting an event relating to plastic. I got in touch last semester thanks to PCA Associate Dean Klaus Fruchtnis who suggested reaching out. I emailed them a blurb about my anti-plastic packaging thesis project. A couple email exchanges later, a formal presentation (see Week 14) got me a small part in their planned event called "Au Fil du Plastique." The project revolved around plastic - my thesis on plastic packaging and eco-alternatives packaging design fit in nicely. Win for them because it's an interactive experience for museum-goers to taste-test prototypes. Win for me because I needed lots of opinions to guide me in developing a better prototype.

The whole event was a three tiered process. A) I made a stand out of boxes, tubes, cardboard, and alligator clips, entertaining for children (belly-button down) and information dense for adults (head space up). B) Opening event presentation (all in french - woot!) to share my work with other like-minded makers. Then C) in the days that followed I did mini-presentations with all kinds of families visiting and did taste-testing workshops with volunteers. Results? Overall, over 72% of respondents enjoyed the edible sample, 60% understood the edible packaging concept, although over 68% had traditional hesitations about it (e.g. hygiene, sanitation, purpose.) Only 10% of respondents could point to edible packaging concepts existing in France (ice cream cones.) While everyone had different taste, a smooth flax-meal blend with carrot food scrap use ranking highest. The best part was hearing from the younger participants who wild and fun encouragement to give me about making packaging out of chocolate, rice, savory flavors, and even designing dishes with walking legs, etc. 

My advice to future student/artists wanting to do a residency at Living Lab:1) have a project that needs public testing, 2) make your visuals big and durable and have physical things to lure them in (I used spoons molded from sugarcane and potato to pass around and then physically walked people into my exhibit space), 3) set your schedule early for workshop days, 4) brush up your french (intermediate level at the least) 5) prep a volunteer release form for permission for photos/videos/workshop participation. Thank you to all who came and volunteered to taste-test my crazy idea. And a big shout out to Carrefour Numerique² for giving me a chance!