• Week 13

Dissertation

After the formative assessment, I started to rethink and ideate what scope of variables I wanted to work on.



I also consulted Andreas on making the weight sensor using a tutorial on Arudino which follows the function that I wish to depict as well.

Chicken Farms

As Human-Food Interaction reader (Eat, Cook and Grow CHI 2019) notes on the topic of food locality and the demand for local, I decided to investigate abit more of Singapore's current chicken supplier, Thailand. Looking into more spaces where I could explore how I show Gen Z the journey of where our food came from, I looked into how our current chicken exporter, Thailand is doing. I went to search visual images of how Thailand’s poultry farms look like.

Ecologies of Food & Design

I was so blessed for Rossane to have sent me a link to attend this talk!

The speakers’ perspectives on food systems were quite new and refreshing to me as they had placed emphasis on the importance of telling the stories of local food and culture passed down from their ancestors.

It made me think about go back to think about my target audiences’ needs and how to connect with them through Singapore food and culture. It is important to consider these touchpoints to make my project more relatable to Singaporean Gen Zs.

At the intersection of Technology and Food Design

I also asked the speakers at the end of the Q&A about how they feel towards future food design and technology affecting food systems. One of the things Gabriella, having worked with such augmented reality and food design, took up the question and mentioned how a balance is definitely needed when integrating technology and food.

After the session, I explored the speakers’ portfolios which gave me a lot of material for food design research that I could tap into for my dissertation!

One of the books I found from one of Gabriella’s written pieces was a book by architect, Carolyn Steel, How Food Shapes Our Lives which she referenced in the article about how although urban areas occupy a small fraction of the global surface, they consume up to 75 per cent of the world’s food and energy resources, with daily eating practices distanced from their impact on bioregional natural systems. It shows our co-dependent we are on our natural system for food and energy resources. Steel calls our desire to want to live both in cities and in nature the ‘urban paradox’. It makes me think a lot about the concept of nature being harvested for urban needs and how cities like Singapore sometimes try to open up man-made spaces where nature is built into this little city.

Lack of food security with 90% food supply imports

Singapore, an island with little natural resources, imports 90% of its food supply.“The world is poised to face a 56 percent shortage in food nutrition by 2050. It may be tough to relate to this in Singapore, crowned the most food-secure nation in the world in 2019. Even as COVID-19 descended and extreme lockdown measures were implemented, our food supply survived relatively unscathed, thanks to our diversified food sources from more than 170 countries.

On a macro level, it’s sad to see that even as a student myself, I bare the effects of this as well. Where buying myself the regular order of 1 meat and 1 vegetable at a neighbourhood cai fan stall suddenly costs $4.20 instead of the previously priced $3.50..

Semakau Landfill running out of space

But why is this problem concerning? 1/3 of all food for human consumption is wasted every year. In Singapore, an estimated 26,000 tonnes of food is thrown away from households even before it is cooked, including expired food and food that is spoiled as a result of improper storage. This equates to 52 plates of nasi lemak — the amount of food which the average Singaporean household tosses out every year. Semakau Landfill, Singapore’s one and only landfill will run out of space by 2035 at our current rate of waste growth.


Trends in People adopting food sustainable practices

In a consumer survey on food wastage conducted by NEA, Singapore in 2019, more people wanted more tips on reducing food waste, the same fraction of respondents are bothered when uneaten food in thrown away and are aware of the environmental impact of food wastage.

Casestudies from Week 1 slides

Compiled casestudies for
Week 1 Presentation →
to spur inspiration & outcomes

Extinction Park (2018) by Lara Torrance

Explores sustainability issues of mass extinction by allowing users to come in contact with the figures of extinct animals

Seed Vault (2016) by Magali Daniaux

A VR experience for Oculus Rift, is based on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Represents the world’s largest collection of crop diversity. Artists Daniaux and Pigot took the architectural blueprints of the vault to construct an experience where a user can explore its imagined future.

Anthrocepene: A Multimedia Exhibit investigating the impact of human footprint on the Earth

A multimedia exploration of the human footprint on Earth.

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