I’ve finally made some concrete decisions about what the final outcome of my project will be. Heres a quick outline of the project:
My project is based around reducing food waste, specifically getting people to buy less food (that will go uneaten) by getting them to think about the massive amounts of resources and effort that have gone into producing it. My idea is that I will produce a beautiful and well crafted food waste bin that is sealed and therefore cannot be emptied or reused and would have to be thrown out along with the food waste that it contains. The idea behind this being it would make people consider the effort thats gone into producing the food – sort of equating it in the users mind with the obvious effort thats gone into producing the bin.
Obviously this isn’t an everyday product that would be used in every home. Its a bit more of a conceptual, critical piece of design that makes a statement about the carelessness with which we regard our food (which I’m much happier about).
Now I need to start looking into what makes people value and become attached to objects and what makes them think ‘wow, thats really well made’ or ‘a lot of efforts gone into that’. The form and size will also be key decision points.
Another aspect, which was raised by my tutor, is that the final outcome could actually be seeing how people interact with the bin and how attached they become. How much do they not want to throw it away and how does this affect their food wasting habits?
Donald Struthers Honours Project 