School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), University of British Columbia
IN CLASS:
DESIGN A DRINKING OBJECT:
Between increasing the distance the water has to travel and the effort it takes to sip out of a creased straw, it will take much longer to drink out of rather than a regular water bottle of the same size, feeling like more liquid.
For this assignment, I ventured into a small alley in-between two condo complexes, close to 63rd avenue and Yukon Street. Because the alley was linear and well delimitated, it would give me a clear ‘sample space’ to record the smells I encountered.
Doing so was not easy, however. Olfactive science is complex, and one single, isolated smell may be the result of a myriad aromatic compounds. Plus, it was pretty cold outside that day: differentiating smells was not easy. In any case, I divided the broad smells I encountered into 3 categories, represented in the perspective and plan below.:
For this assignment, I visited a newer residential project in Marpole, where I sat down, tried to document the sounds that I was hearing, and tried to categorize them into broad categories (represented in the graph below). I realized a few limitations to my approach as I was compiling the results:
For the wind sculpture, I generated a few images using Midjourney V4 in order and a basic prompt: “A simple urban sculpture that transforms wind into music.” Below are the resulting images, and my own alteration:
in class/at home
I am REALLY sensitive to smell, and sometimes if a smell is too strong it makes me feel ill. Ocean smell in particular has always been very unpleasant for me. This is a map of where I felt most ill at the beach. I realized the algae smell made me more ill than the seawater, which was bad too but a lot milder.
Then we walked past this playground and I remembered this fire truck.
The first time I saw the pacific ocean was when my family visited this same beach on a trip to Vancouver over ten years ago. I went swimming in the ocean and choked on the seawater because I can’t swim, and threw up. Then I went looking for seashells and found a really big one. I picked it up to show my sister. It grew legs. It was not a seashell.
It was a crab.
I threw it into the water and started crying.
A few years before that my mom accidentally served me the head of the fish at dinner. I hadn’t yet made the connection that fish the animal and fish the food were the same thing. Its eye was staring at me. I cried. I don’t eat seafood anymore, anything fishy grosses me out.
The conclusion I’ve come to is that smell is something that can be very personal. I had a bit of a tough time with this portion of the site visit, and I was surprised to see that nobody else was grossed out. I hadn’t realized that ocean smell is something that a lot of people enjoy? My experience of this particular smell is shaped not only by my biological reaction to it, but also by some of my earliest memories, and everyone else in the world experiences the same smell differently for a variety of equally valid reasons. Definitely something to be mindful of when designing.
The first in class drawings were done based only on sound, without visual aid. I experimented with a circular timeline of shapes representing sounds within an enclosed car, than a more traditional linear timeline of patterns moving in a single direction on nature sounds. I drew patterns in enclosed rectangles to represent the individual bird songs within the nature audio.
The second in class drawing was done as Daniel played the piano for us. Although I know next to nothing about the piano, I developed my own system of amorphous shapes to represent keys, then staggered these shapes on top of and beside each other to signify a melody. A small diagram farthest to the left explains this. I was also sure to point out where I felt specific keys in my own body. Certain notes that hit the hardest/loudest I was able to feel reverberating behind my eyes or in my stomach.
For my first drawing I sat in a courtyard downtown Vancouver and mapped all the sounds I heard in a section drawing. I created patterns around each source of noise that I felt fit said noise best. I then drew textured spheres based on what those sounds felt like as they arrived in my ears.
For my windplay object I began with looking at objects that made sounds I liked, and broke down their components to figure out what motions took place in order for their sounds to occur. I first looked at thunder sheets, historically used in plays to mimic the rumbling sound of thunder. I then analyzed rain sticks and researched how the sound was created inside of the rain stick tube.
For my windplay object I chose to develop components of a thunder sheet at a larger scale. The metal sheet is suspended in a concrete corridor as to keep the sheet within the direct path of a flow of wind, causing it to jiggle and create noise.
Because I’m assuming the concrete hallway directs thunder noises created by the sheet in specific directions, I began to think about how this object would be placed in a social setting. I tried to think about how the object would need to be consciously oriented toward social spaces or pathways so people can truly be within the noise that the object creates.
My first set of drawings for this assignment were done at the Granville Island market. I drank a London fog and tried to capture what it felt like to both sip from the cup it was served in and any residue in my mouth. I then ate a Nanaimo bar and attempted to map all of its different textures, as well as the experience of biting into it and any residue left behind.
At home, I tasted some of the spices I had on hand and drew where my mind went; I mainly related the spices to miscellaneous plants and foods. I was also sure to map any major feelings I noticed on my tongue.
For the design of my drinking object I took inspiration from the enclosed compartments of a lighter and my water bottle. I combined elements from both precedents to form disorienting goggles that mimic a slow but visible depletion of liquid as you drink.
IN CLASS
I really really do not like pickles but I thought the one I tried at Granville was okay. I graphed the relative brineyness in relation to the relative cucumbery-ness for each chew. I noticed that while the cucumber taste was dominant i thought it was pretty good, and when the brine taste took over again I didn’t like it anymore.
I got a sandwich from the market, and I think it’s the best sandwich I have ever eaten. I cannot put into words how good it is. Initially, for a brief moment, I could only taste the bread. Then, the rest of the ingredients came forward. I could taste them each individually and they were all good separately, but better and perfectly balanced each other together. As I kept chewing they mushed into one and were still ridiculously good. I tried to capture the euphoria of eating this sandwich as well as the combination of tastes as I was chewing.
At Home –
These are my best approximations of what it felt like to eat these things. I tried to show how the bitterness, saltiness, and sweetness tastes started from the centre of my mouth and moved outwards. Conversely, the spiciness moved from the bottom of my mouth upwards, and the sourness was all over the place and felt sharp.
I made spaghetti with frozen meatballs. I didn’t put enough sauce in so the flavours weren’t balanced well.
At home – Drinking Glass Design
My idea was to have realistic looking glass ice cubes and a lemon wedge as part of the cup. They’d add weight and decrease the useable volume while still resembling things that would normally be present in a cup. This is a bad idea because you can’t clean that.
I then thought of these baby bottle toys that were popular when I was a kid. When you tip it over to “drink” from it all of the liquid fills into the lid and disappears.
With the same principle, the purple liquid would fill the lid and “disappear” there as you drink, the opening for it would be a lot larger than that of the pink liquid so there would be more flow.
The pink liquid would be what you’re actually drinking, and it would be in the lid, which is opaque with a very small spout. You’d be tricked into thinking you’re quickly drinking a lot of liquid, while actually slowly drinking a small amount of liquid.
