Midterm Assignment //Video Scenario
2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
“Video for the People”
Moving from "concept" to "concrete design", students will create a short video scenario to convey the main issues for debate. As part of this assignment, a variety of diegetic prototypes should be designed to represent ideas and tell stories of speculative worlds.
Students will (1) Propose a Design Fiction scenario using video (or photos + narration audio), on on their topic of research, and (2) Write a short explanation paper (1 page), emphasizing the main issue for debate and elaborating on their speculation.
This assignment continued the students' collages and speculative visions, taking their concepts one step further into their speculative visions
Guests Myriel Milicevic, Dr. Jean-Baptist Labrune, Dr. Joëlle Bitton, and Dr. Denisa Kera joined us for the students' final presentations.
Adi Frug & Adi Gilad //Discharged Soil
Exposeia, demonstrates a pervasive indicator by invading private smartphones, to expose local soil contamination data. The application provides an intriguing sonic clue that stimulates public interest.
This imaginative design proposes a disruptive experience to question our access to information or the ways it could be distributed.
Yael Vangelder & Avia Fuchs //Food + Privacy
FitAF explores the medium of Snapchat AR filters in relation to our personal food consumption.
It questions the boundaries of privacy in a society that willingly overshares information and the possible impact of social media by introducing cameras and social media into the intimate spaces of the dinner table and our bodies. As a working Snapchat filter, FitAF circulates in social media and invites users to ask if it is possible to choose privacy.
Bat Primo & Maor Bluman //Food & Empathy
In a world, not very different than ours, a new robot species, originally designed as a companion, was found to be edible. Humans took advantage of the discovery, introducing robots to their daily diets and naturally adopting this new dietary option to tradition, health, and indulgence. Eating Robots questions humans empathy and the perception of robots as social, intelligent entities and challenges our attitudes towards consuming other "living" species
Biran Shaar & May Recanati //Taking the Heat: Gender Inequality in the Kitchen
SIMI – a "smart" apron for the modern woman, raises the thought of the kitchen as a space that is culturally often attributed to women, and in a way, perpetuates gender inequality. The kitchen represents a duality in its relation to women: on the one hand – it’s the heart of the house, where a woman can perform her cultural role of feeding and taking care of her family - it’s her “kingdom”. On the other hand - it serves as a socio-cultural “prison”, that maintains the old perception of women’s gender role - from which she cannot escape, and is often accompanied by oppression and even aggression towards her. Under the guise of advanced technology for the modern woman, SIMI aims at helping successful women to excel in the kitchen, as in other areas of their lives. However, it actually serves as an object that connects women more tightly to the kitchen space, which, in a sense, keeps its cultural-oppressive role.
Daphna Abulafia & Yaron Dinur //Food Classes
In the food and health-oriented world, you are defined by the food you consume. Food Classes imagines a land and government that monitors its citizens' food consumption, questioning the values of privacy, equality, the price of sustainability, and an alternative "class system". Each citizen has a sensor implemented inside the esophagus which tracks the nutrition that the person will ever eat. The sensor radiates a shape of a five-petal flower on the person’s neck, which reflects the different food types the person digests. For example, when someone eats a vegetable or a fruit, one of the petal leaves will be filled in green for 24 hours. People who eat healthy to be efficient and productive, while people who eat unhealthy food are seen as inefficient and overall a burden on the system. Therefore, the healthiest do not pay taxes, as they only improve society. The unhealthy pay a heavy price for their nutrition habits.
Eventually, people become affected by that policy. The healthier food is in extreme demand and therefore very expensive. As people are aware of each other’s nutrition by looking on each other’s necks, people suffer from discrimination over their flower’s status.
Amit Carmeli & Amnon Graitzer & Eran Dvir //Gender Equality & Food
What if a habit considered as an eating disorder for one, is another's way of life? Bulimia involves binge eating and purging, it appears to be increasingly prevalent in young women, but men also experience it. With significant numbers among the population, we thought, how would a world in which bulimia is accepted by society and the disorder becomes a matter of habit (veganism, for example) look like? What would we design for this population? How can we empower this disorder and treat it as a daily and normal thing? Will bulimia still be counted as an eating disorder in this world?
iVOMIT is a smart device that supports any bulimic, anywhere, anytime, in a world where eating disorders are redefined, and actually become “THIS ORDER”.
Lilach Spivack & Dror Zuckerman //Entomophagy
GRAB a GRUB combines the primal hunting-gathering skills, along with the future-facing practice of entomophagy, to create an innovative fine-dining experience. The app uses the mobile’s GPS to present the user with insects in his location, for him to gather in order to use in gourmet recipes. Users will be able to explore and actively search for edible insects in their surroundings or be notified when their favorite insects are found nearby. With more and more people consuming insects, we should ask how can we enjoy the ecological and environmental benefits of introducing insects into human nutrition, without producing a new industry that could eventually outweigh those benefits?
Denis Trayman & Daniel Goldblat //Selfishness & Food
The world's food supply is decreasing and the population is increasing. Looking at the problem, world leaders were faced with the concerning problem of food waste. worldwide there are 1.3 billion tons per year of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally.
Imagining a society where all people get their nutrition through a feeding tube, all people get exactly the amount of nutrition they need, not more, not less.
We ask ourselves how our lives would change if we were to shift the energy we put into preparing, buying, and consuming food towards other aspects of our life, challenging the role of culinary arts. Moreover, we ask ourselves what is the price of this notion towards "equality".