Culture & Design - Sustainability\'s role in a post-globalization world

1. 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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2. 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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3. Intro
My culture geographically
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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4. Intro
My 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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5. Intro
My culture analyzed in context of time
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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6. 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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7. Intersection Cuisine
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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8. Intersection Cuisine
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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9. Intersection Cuisine
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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10. Intersection Cuisine
We held a dinner that featured organic and sustainably harvested vegetables, fish
and meat, and had an engaging dinner.
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11. Intersection Cuisine
Intersection Cuisine
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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12. 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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13. Cultural Observations
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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14. Cultural Observations
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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15. Cultural Observations
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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16. Cultural Observations
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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17. 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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18. Historical Exploration
Daughter Red
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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19. 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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20. Sustainability’s Role
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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21. Sustainability’s Role
“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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22. Conclusion
World view
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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23. 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!
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