culture&design

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Culture & Design: What role does sustainability play in a “post-globalization” world?

Ivy Chuang | Knoend

Feburary 25 Dinner Talks

TOUCH Gallery Los Angeles 2009

Welcome everyone. Thank you very much for coming to tonight to this Dinner Talk organized by the TOUCH Gallery. My name is Ivy Chuang, I am the design director at Knoend, an interdisciplinary design studio I founded almost 3 years ago. We produce our own products and we also take on commissioned projects from companies as well. Sustainability & Innovation are our core values. So I connected with Zoe Melo late last year and I think both of us realized very quickly – in our first phone conversation in fact, that there was a great synergy with our values and passions. We’ve talked about various ways to collaborate and this dinner talk became the perfect medium. Thank you Zoe and Peter, for inviting me to speak at your gallery and share this wonderful evening with everyone.

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Progression Indicator

Intro Cultural Observations Sustainability’s Role

Intersection Cuisine Historical Exploration Conclusion

So to start off, something that I’ve begun to do with all my presentations is to create a progression indicator that follows the topics. If you ever lose focus, get lost in your own thoughts, or get confused, you can always jump back in to see where we are by looking at the top right corner of the page. You’ll also have an indication of how close we are to the conclusion.

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My culture geographicallyIntro

So since tonight’s theme is culture & design, I thought I’d start by introducing the culture that defines me. I’m an avid traveler, I’ve visited about 30 countries, lived in 4, and speak 6 languages. I was educated through International American Schools in Taiwan then Japan, attended High School and University Stateside, went on two summer exchange programs to Cuba and Spain, then went to Italy to receive my Master’s in Design, returned to the US to begin my profession.

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IntroMy culture from different points of view

Well according to my parents, I am 100% Taiwanese because both of them are Taiwanese, and all of our ancestors are too. According to the rest of the world, I am 100% American because I was born here, and the US government doesn’t allow me to hold any other passport. According to the people around the world, when I tell them I’m American, they pause, then gesture and say, “but you look…a” “you look a” and then I say, originally from Taiwan, and that settles things.

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My culture analyzed in context of timeIntro

I decided to look at the Accuracy of my statement, so I made the basis of my cultural composure in terms of time. So today I am 10,885 days old. And I broke it down into number of days that I spent in each of the countries I’ve been in in my life. I estimated 6257 days in the states, 2555 in Taiwan, 1460 in Japan, 345 in Italy, and so on.

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Intro

I’m American, I really am.

And after that exercise, I can claim truthfully that I am American. I’ve proven it! Now what’s interesting about this breakdown that it directly correlates to my language abilities however, it doesn’t begin to show the connections I have with the rest of the world. I have friends from India, Iceland, Brazil, and many many more countries that I have never been to and through them I learn more and it also becomes a part of me. I listen to music from around the world, watch films, read books and those also influence my cultural identity.

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Intersection Cuisine


In addition to where we’ve been, who we know, we can also look at Food as a basis for culture. I personally will eat just about anything and exploring cuisines of other cultures is one of my favorite things. Just by observing what and how people eat we can see how people relate to each other in a culture. The Intersection cuisine project was to find a new food culture, to design a new experience. This was an art project that my company took on just to keep our minds fresh, to think about things out of the scope of our usual constraints of product design.

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We wanted to create something beyond fusion cuisine, which is essentially focused only on a culinary level. We looked at the project from a design perspective, and began by examining the location of dining – the table. Taking cues from different cultures traditions with eating with hands, being seating on the floor, sharing plates and so on.

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We wanted to create an experience that would encourage a new relation among all diners. And most importantly, we wanted the new experience to be fun! So after looking into all these ideas of sharing we settled on a dual level design that would give food mobility on plates with wheels.

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We held a dinner that featured organic and sustainably harvested vegetables, fish and meat, and had an engaging dinner.

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We imagined the project as a migratory project, to occur in different locales, giving different chefs the opportunity to create cuisine inspired with the concept and the furniture itself. I’m happy to say that this is the first migration to Los Angeles and so our intention worked!

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Cultural Observations

Wasabi Butter Spread

So while we were in the process of designing, we discussed a lot of cultural observations in dining. I want to list some examples to get back onto the topic. When I was in Italy for the year, one thing I noticed was that all the Chinese restaurants also served sushi – I have to say the Chinese food in Milan wasn’t spectacular – and the Chinese interpreted sushi even less appetizing – but I settled on the closest they could get for the year I was there. There was one time I looked over at someone eating sushi with fork and knife and was completely amused. She spread the wasabi over the sushi like butter and then cut the pieces and ate it like steak. Traditionally in Japan, Sushi is eaten with the hands, now more often with chopsticks – so it was really strange to see it being eaten like steak. But then I think, well perhaps there is room to think about a new product, like Wasabi butter.

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Moscarino Spork


Another example in Milan is “Aperitivo” which is essentially their happy hour. Bars in Milan will offer a buffet of finger foods during Happy Hour and it is a way to have a social environment that doesn’t need to be interrupted because of the need to move on to a sit-down dinner. The problem with finger foods is that you will always be juggling too many elements in your hands, napkin, food, drink, and utensil. Well, the Moscardino spork was the perfect solution. It is a biodegradable spork made of corn starch designed by Pandora Design in Italy – it is a great example of sustainable design in context.

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Cargill Meat Turnaround

Now here is an example, not of a product, but of an opportunity that derived from a cultural insight. I recently read in Fast Company Magazine that Cargill, an American Meat Company, found itself shut out of the global market in 2003 when the Mad Cow epidemic froze US Beef Exports. They previously had been freezing and shipping abroad all the parts of the cows that weren’t traditionally sold in the US supermarket chains they had accounts with. However, with some research they realized that there was a huge demand in the Hispanic Community for things like cow tongue (lengua) shown here, stomachs, intestines, and all these other parts that they had been shipping overseas. So they turned around their production supply chain, and started to package and market these parts fresh, and sure enough, sales surged.

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Butlers and Maids happy to serve

A current cultural phenomenon in Japan – in the form of a service product are these new Maid and Butler Cafes where the waiterpersons are dressed as Maids and Butlers. As you can see in the photo, it is not catering for a fetish audience because the sexuality is not at an overt level. What I am told is that these place are a hit because of the extreme level of hospitality and customer service that they offer. In a society that emphasizes respect and politeness, its no wonder the Japanese have responded to these cafes and their attentive service.

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Kolsch and Carry

Now I’ll take the conversation to a personal product observation I made when I was in Cologne Germany this past January. In Cologne, the specialty is Kolsch, a smooth, light blond beer that is as easy to drink as Lemonade. I had always imagined that I would be drinking beer out of monster jugs in Germany, but was delightfully surprised with these dainty slim 2L glasses, but I was really delighted when I saw the apparatus that was designed to carry multiples of Kolsch glasses. My theory was that these glasses were designed so that you had an account of drinking many beers and could sense that you may have had one too many as the glasses multiplied on yr table. The real reason…well who knows, but what a great carrying tray!

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Historical Exploration

TV Dinner – The modern marvel

We can also think about Design from a historical standpoint – TV Dinners in America in the 1950s were considered a great advance in Modernity. They allowed you to save time, to experience new technology – the microwave, it allowed you to try different cuisines that you otherwise might not know how to cook – and have quality family time all together in front of the TV. Over time the context in how we look at TV Dinners has changed drastically, but by remembering how innovation was perceived previously, we can then gain insight into what we design for the future.

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Daughter Red

Historical Exploration

Now here is another Historical Exploration that centers around tradition. You have this liquor sold in China called Nu-er-hong which translates to Daughter Red. The idea is that you buy the liquor for your daughter’s wedding when she is born, and you’ll wait for 18yrs it says on this advertisement, but however many years, until that one day of celebration. Now I had a personal encounter with this product, when I was planning my wedding last year, my father took me to buy this liquor, I thought we were buying liquor for the banquet, but he tells me it is for my daughter’s wedding. I looked at him strangely because I do not have a daughter nor was I expecting to for awhile. “You mean to say, this is for my hypothetical daughter yet to be born’s wedding?” He explained that it was some Chinese tradition, but that now Taiwanese liquor companies were offering this product. You buy the liquor they store it in their vault indefinitely for you until you are ready to drink it. “Well what if I never have a daughter, or what if she never gets married?” He shrugged and said, “I don’t know, I think its all a marketing ploy, but I thought we could buy some.” I found it immensely touching though perhaps illogical. And now we have these vats of liquor waiting for that special day, many years off – I figure it’ll be great for my father’s 90th bday party, if a granddaughter doesn’t actually ever come to be.

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Sustainability’s Role

Consequence in Context

So I’ve taken us through these examples in cultural and historical context because I want to speak about sustainability. Sustainability has been the buzz word for a number of years now, but the emphasis has been placed on the environment, climate change, materials. We’re starting to see that more people are paying attention to social aspects such as living wages and fair trade, but we are still not seeing correlation with societal and cultural constructs. This is a vending machine in Japan that serves french fries, hot dogs, fried chicken and other hot foods. When anything is designed we have to think about Consequence, with everything that is produced in the world there is a cultural/societal consequence. We’ve been conditioned to think about function, desires, and cost. I’m hungry waiting for a train, I’d like to have some hot food, and some company wants to sell it to me. It makes perfect sense then to have a fried chicken vending machine on a train platform then doesn’t it? But then what happens to the owners of the restaurants near the train station, the people that had jobs cooking and serving? What happens to your own mentality, that you are fine eating something frozen for a unknown period of time to be heated when you put in some coins. We’ve been conditioned too long to just answer the calls of convenience and currency. And in doing so we’ve created societies on impulses. But what should really be important when we put things out in the world is CONTEXT and CONSEQUENCE, NOT CONVENIENCE and CURRENCY.

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Step out of the thrill of the bargain mindset


So I’d like to step out of the food context – pun intended and show you these pair of sneakers, how much do you think they cost? 70? 50? 25? What brand are they? Does it matter? They cost me $7. These are my first pair of Walmart sneakers. I managed to avoid Walmart for a good part of my life but the first time I went into Walmart I couldn’t believe there were $7 dollar sneakers! This was quite a few years ago, and I haven’t worn them frequently but I have worn them, and they are totally functional and of great quality. Now over the years, as they’ve held up my guilt for buying them has grown exponentially. We all love the thrill-of-the-bargain. We like to think that we paid a fair price and got something of more value. I went out of the store happy and proud that I had scored such a good deal. Now in my mind I kinda knew that it was too cheap, but now that I run my own business I know – Sneakers are not machine made, there are components that are but they still require hand stitching and assembly. You wonder, these shoes made in China, the materials, leather, synthetic materials, rubber, cotton, plastic assembled far away, passed through how many hands in trucks ships or planes into my hands? How many times has anyone you know saved for years and years to buy something (with the exception of a house maybe) and then was extremely happy they bought it? We have to step out of the thrill-of –the bargain mindset that has been created in the world, we have to think about the process to deliver the things we buy and make the connection.

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“Post-Globalization”

• Advanced Transportation Methods

• Robust Information Technology

• Interlinked Economies

• Homogenized Consumer Culture

• On-all-the-time Media & Entertainment

• McNikeColaBucks Proliferation


I believe the current financial meltdown has been caused by designing a one-size-fits-all mentality and forcing the world to squeeze in.

We’ve created this world where the infrastructure has been set up and its expected that every country will adopt this same system, the cities will have streets for cars, gas stations, maybe some forms of public transportation, plumbing, heating electricity grids, movie theaters, restaurants, shopping malls, grocery stores, outlet stores, and so on– its sameness everywhere. Our life is governed by all these products and services that are designed to help us live a better life, gyms to give our hearts a boost a recommended 20 minutes 3x a week, yogurt in a disposable tube when you’re on the go. Globalization happened with commodity trade being the impetus – and now we have it, free flowing trade, but all these things that come with it, even beyond the scope of the melting earth, we have to think in the context of all perspectives.

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World view

Conclusion

This is an ad campaign for HSBC bank, I’m not sure if they are as culturally sensitive as these ads claim they are, but what I thought was really perceptive was that they understood the value of perspective. And this is where culture has to come into focus for sustainable design to really function in our new world. Does it make it more complicated – yes, but everything is complicated, so here’s yr challenge

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Conclusion

Think more. Thanks for listening and I look forward to carrying this conversation on with everyone thru dinner. Thank you again Zoe and Peter for organizing this gathering!

culture&design

Education

culture design

intersection cuisine

fusion cuisine

intromy culture

new food culture

design director

design perspective

dual level design