Author: rachelwatsondesigns

To make my narrative more coherent and to fully understand what is happening within the context of my narrative, I have decided to put myself in my narrative as a character. I will be a student who is volunteering to help with the society and become one of the members so I can understand and give back to the community. My developed narrative below is written in first person and highlights that although not every member in the society is personally experiencing food poverty, some may be experiencing loneliness and want that feeling of community, especially in a post-covid world, so there are mixture of members, some of which are just volunteering to help those in need.

Project Narrative

I am a month into joining the society and I already feel like a member. There is a real sense of community and spirit among the members here, something I have not seen or felt in a long time. The members are made up of the residents of the surrounding areas, most of which are from Margate, Thanet and Folkestone. The coastal areas that are full of people in absolute and relative poverty. It is these people that the society is made up of and support, a place where they can come and feel a part of the community without prejudice or discrimination. A place to ensure that they are fed and do not go home hungry.

It is Sunday, Banquet day and the house is full of people talking laughing and eating wholesome and healthy food that has been cooked together and shared out amongst everyone. Everyone eats and talks enjoying the feast while wearing their red robes so there is a sea of red swarming the banquet hall bringing colour and life to the old wooden walls. I wear my hooded robe face closed. We do this for our own dignity, to keep our identity hidden it makes everyone feel more equal and united.

Although the society is aimed at helping those who are struggling, the society is open to all anyone who wants to help and volunteer, myself included. I come to help bring fresh food each week and help once or twice a week at the front of house fresh market where the society members sell their freshly baked goods and raise funds. All the money raised goes back into the society to help more local people in need, ensuring everyone who needs it gets their essential food to end local food poverty. It is enlightening to see how far we have come to help those in need since the dark days of the pandemic that impacted the world 5 years ago and it feels almost fictional looking back on such a time, such a closed off lonely world.  

Banquet day is a reminder that we are all in this together, a reminder that whether we are struggling or well off we are all human and need support through the hardships of life. In just a month I have seen what the power of goodness and a society such as this can do and how much it can help everyone. We are continuing to recruit members and hope that the society inspires others to start something similar. Imagine a world where food poverty does not exist? In a world where people are united instead of being divided. It is one I imagine of hope and unity and in the society, I can start to see it happening. So spread the word and join us so you can become a part of what is a movement of change. Imagining a world where you are not defined by your income or class but who you are as a person. Who we are as people, individuals. The world is changing and it is happening now!

Character Profiles

In putting myself in my narrative, I also decided to make some character profiles of members of the society to try and understand who would be likely to come to the society so I have tried to identify rough ages and occupations but have kept sexes and identities hidden as with the beliefs of the society.

Project Manifesto

1. Bringing a sense of COMMUNITY back to the local Canterbury area through the development of a working-class society to unite people and create a strong local network of support and feeling of togetherness.
2. Creating a NEW TRADITION centered around food where members of the society come together once a week on Sundays, to cook, bake and share a banquet feast together in an attempt to end local food poverty.
3. The society will EDUCATE other members by teaching life skills such as learning to cook and bake, learn the importance of healthy nutrition and gain work experience. The members of the society will bake healthy and nutritious goods to sell at the in-house fresh food market to the public.
4. There will be an in-house FRESH food market on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for the society to sell their freshly baked produce to raise funds for the society.
5. The food will be baked and sourced locally to support the LOCAL working-class community and to create a more sustainable solution to the food industry.
6. By creating a strong local society centered around targeting food poverty, it will stop prejudices and discrimination between classes in the community and create EQUALITY uniting the local inhabitants.

For my manifesto artwork, I wanted to go down more of a traditional route of artwork to reflect a pre-covid world where coming together and enjoying food and company was more or a normal thing to do. As I am doing a society including robes and rooted in the historical town of Canterbury, I wanted to take a step back with the tapestry and do something away from the digital and the ordinary.

Tapestry Research

Manifesto Artwork Tapestry

The images below show the extend of detail in which I have taken to complete this tapestry. It was something that I enjoyed doing but was something that took up an immense amount of time. Roughly about a week an a half of 12 hour days this tapestry took to complete and sits over an A1 hessian material. I have used traditional medieval colours of rich reds, greens, blues and browns to depict the scene.

The scene shows members of the community coming together to enjoy healthy and nutritious food. They are all equal, as they wear their robes, supporting one another through their different journeys, some experiencing different levels of food poverty.

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Close up images of Manifesto Tapestry

This blog is more focused on the refinement of my project narrative and tasks which are more closely related to the development of my own narrative and manifesto.

This narrative collage was created from the response of asking and answering questions to building a narrative. The types of questions for example were: Who are you with? What is the lighting like? What food is in front of you? What can you smell?

For the final image of my narrative I wanted to create something a bit more traditional, such as a banquet feast in which you can enjoy being with people and enjoying food. Since being in lockdown, a sense of hospitality and ritual around food has been lost as one cannot go out to eat as one normally would. Therefore, from this collage exercise I have decided that my narrative will be in a post lockdown setting to attempt to bring back that ritual and enjoyment of eating as well as talking, enjoying the company of others when eating. To put myself in the narrative (as seen with my hand collaged in down the bottom right) to make it more personal and to understand it in more depth.

Developing from my narrative collage above, I began to define my narrative further. I started to bring in themes that I had developed earlier such as community, local, food poverty and nutrition. This led onto the idea of developing a community, a safe space for people who are experiencing food poverty or loneliness from the lockdown to come and be a part of. The society would be a place where people can come to eat and make friends, to tackle problems that come with poverty, people often feeling alienated and excluded from the normal.

The make the members feel safer, the community would also wear a uniform, hooded robes so everyone would feel equal in this safe space. I have chosen to use robes as the uniform as robes cover the whole body so there would be no discrimination on what people are wearing. The robes would also keep the identities of the members hidden so they would feel safe in a place and not have to share who they are. On a more traditional note, looking at monk robes and why they wear them is to The robes are meant to symbolize simplicity and detachment of materialism, much like the members of the society who would be experiencing poverty.

Narrative Draft

Everyone is sitting around an old engraved, dark wooden table red wine goblets in their hands, eating abrasively in the other, stomachs full of all foods imaginable. People talk loudly and there is laughter, old and young, echoing throughout the old wooden hall and bouncing off the old stones from the floor and ceiling cloisters. Conversations about family, loved ones, food, jokes, and stories echo around and are shared without hesitation amongst the community in a place where everyone is equal. It is hard to tell individuals apart as everyone wears the same hooded robes marked with the crest symbol of the society. No one calls each other by names here, we are just equals, ‘brother’ it is about who you are not what you are.

There is a strong sense of a new tradition in the halls and passageways that lead to the secret location that is where we are. It is medieval banquets and feasts met with a new societal value, creating a new tradition of togetherness and community, leaving old negative beliefs of class and division behind. Technology and electricity do not belong here, to remain secret we have left it behind and we do not need the confusions and divides that technology brings. Instead, the passageways and the banquet hall is full of hundreds of brightly lit candles creating an ambient, warm, and inviting light, a reminder that better times have come and even brighter times will come. Although there is a slight chill in the air, the burning candles give out heat from the flames and hot wax and the thick robes keep in heat efficiently.

Additionally, the room is warmed through the rich red, yellows and purple textures that accompany the room, the communal tapestry on the wall and the paintings on stone that cover the floor and some joinery on the ceiling. This is brought to life by the array of foods and drink that covers the long table in the centre of the room. Brightly coloured fruits and vegetables, freshly baked breads, pastas, puddings, and pastries lay abundantly and artfully arranged waiting, ready to be met with hungry mouths. Everyone bakes and cooks what they have and what they can afford each week and they all bring to share with everyone here. This means that everyone has enough each week and no one goes home hungry or unfed. No one suffers anymore.

And this sense of togetherness, this sense of community spirit, this new tradition is a reminder that in the far future we will not have to be secret about it, what we are working towards. A society, a world with no class or division where every mouth and bellies are fed, young or old, where there is enough for everyone to be healthy and happy. A pre-Covid world will be talk of the past, a negative world full of darkness where capitalism ruled and working-class people suffered, dying on the front lines. We will rise and we will suffer no more!

This blogs shows the tasks and process I had to undergo to develop my own project narrative and manifesto. The process began by relooking at the research questions from the group research phase of the project and changing them to fit a new narrative. Some elements I have kept the same such as the community aspect, the importance of education as well as food poverty, ensuring everyone in a community is well fed regardless of class and poverty lines.

The next tasks begin with comparing two images, one from a magazine and one from one of the books from our reading list. This developed into a critical analysis of the two images which helped develop a narrative of the images.

The next tasks were to chose a non fictional passage and a fictional passage of which the passage described a space. I then had to emulate the style of the author and write my own passages in a non fictional style and a fictional style and then compare the two. The purpose of this exercise was to explore how to write a narrative and what would be best for my own narrative. I came to the conclusion that writing a narrative in a non fictional style is more enjoyable to read but also gives more depth, adding to the development of the story.

Comparing both passages A and B:

Both the pieces of text, even though they are written about the same space are very different and almost create a different view of the same space. The fictional narrative piece of text creates a lot more atmosphere around the room as well as in it and creates naturally a lot more narrative. The second piece of text which is non-fictional, inspired by an interior design magazine, is written as almost an instruction manual of the dos and don’ts of interior spaces, creating less of an atmosphere but more of a guideline as to what to follow.

I prefer the first the which is a more narrative piece of creative writing but captivates you more to the story and narrative that is being told. There is also the added dimension of character description and development which emphasis how people and human behaviours and interactions are just as much of the space as the furniture and furnishings in the space, arguably more important than the physical aspects. The non-fiction text can also go into more depth and description such as the five senses and how the individual reacts and feels towards the space. In contrast, the non-fiction text is much less inviting and captivating than the fictional piece of text. Although it teaches or tells the reader how to create atmosphere in their own room, it lacks the own creativity and atmosphere in the writing. It is not a bad style of writing as it is formal and, in another context, creates a very formative, educational guideline which most people reading the text would find helpful. However, for the context of creating an interesting, creative narrative it is perhaps the wrong approach and extract A fits a better example as to what to expect for creating narrative and atmosphere to set the tone and purpose of the project.

These sequence diagrams take inspiration from Sarah Wigglesworth Table diagrams and show the more direct impact of human interaction and experience that take place when baking and consuming bread.

This diagram shows the process around the baking of the bread taking into account the human experience, the time taken and the actions that are involved in the bread baking. The diagrams, which featured in the instruction booklet of the atmosphere pack, show the different processes in sequence and the time taken for that to happen such as the mixing of the dry ingredients and the oil takes much less time than the kneading of the bread which needs to be done for ten minutes. The longer the time taken on the action is shown in the multiple layers of the diagrams. The bottom line represents the actions taken, created by my own hand, I mimicked the actions that my hands did when baking the bread to represent the physicality of the baking process, for example when mixing ingredients I rotated in a circular motion as shown in the squiggle under the correlating diagram.

Similar to the first diagram and taking the same concepts behind the diagram, this sequence is a response to the consumer experience of eating the bread. Taking from the analysis and observation of the footage sent from the consumers, I was able to create this diagram. The interesting differences were the consumer’s response to opening the pack and the addition of having an educational interlude.

My design precedents will be the styles that inspire my own drawings and diagrams throughout the project. In using design precedents I can gain more of a understanding of communicating through technical drawings, renders and diagrams.

I have chosen Benjamin Fern’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences as my precedent as I particularly like the high contrast black and white as well as the detailed texture and materiality that he has added in a subtle way but adds depth and realness to the drawings.

I have chosen Sarah Wigglesworth’s table manners as I am drawn to the contrast of the simplicity of the diagrams as well as details and depth that goes in to her work. I particularly enjoy the way that these drawings show the impacts of human interaction and interference of a space which allows us to observe how people react and use a space, very important when designing spaces.

The final atmosphere pack contains the following:

– Dry Ingredients bag (containing 500g strong white flour, 7g quick-action yeast, 2 tsp Salt.

– Extra Ingredients (150g strong white flour for dusting)

– Pumpkin Seed Bag (150g)

– Instruction Booklet

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Stop Motion Video of Atmosphere Pack

Our project focuses on the performance aspect of baking the bread. These series of images show a test run of myself baking bread in its different stages. I am following a very simple recipe: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-white-bread

These projects I found particularly interesting and will help to form our own project centred around bread. They have been chosen with the project brief in mind as well as projects that are centred around a local community.

The People’s Brick Company – Something & Son

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This community project invited local people to come and make their mark by making their own unique bricks. The bricks are made of clay from a local quarry in the area. Members of the local community can come and make their own brick leaving their initials in the brick and being left to dry over the summer period, the idea being that there be a constantly evolving collection of personalised hand made bricks. During the end of the exhibition period all the bricks will be used to construct a large firing kiln and left as a reminder that architecture can be both simple and inclusive.

I chose this project as inspiration for the group project as it has a strong community presence and community involvement. The idea as well of making bricks, which has a recipe and something that you leave to harden and then bake, mirrors the process of baking bread.

Sarah WigglesWorth – Table Manners

The project Table Manners by architect Sarah Wigglesworth observes a dinner table before, during and after. Wigglesworth’s attention to detail and reality of a dinner table scenario setting creates an interesting and captivating series of diagrams. The idea behind it as well was to observe the human interaction and relationships of a household. Observing human interactions and relationships between hospitality and its social aspects.

VUUV Architecture Office

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 VUUV designed an installation of ephemeral architecture for the event. ‘from our viewpoint, fashion, like architecture, is the ‘shell’ to protect people. fashion is also known as the first ‘house’ that surrounds the body. depending on the morphology and materials, both of these industries directly affect the physiology of people, and they are obviously two arts that are culturally unique’, says VUUV. VUUV wanted to build upon the natural materials which are traditionally used in architectural practice to create new perspectives. the final installation is composed of three wall layers made of bamboo with three different knitting structures, which were all made by traditional vietnamese craft villages. (https://www.designboom.com/architecture/vuuv-bamboo-shell-fashion-exhibition-ho-chi-minh-city-09-23-2020/)

The reasoning behind choosing this project as a precedent for the project is as we are taking something as simple as bread and creating a new story and meaning behind it.

The new project brief is inspired by lockdown and how every household had to adapt to the changes that brought with the Covid-19 virus. The new brief questions what is the future of hospitality? Hospitality and eating has always been seen as a social activity of human interaction, but how can hospitality be during lockdown and social distancing? The start of the project focuses on the art of baking bread.

The project, throughout the first term, begins as a group project working as a team to produce bread and an atmosphere pack with step by step instructions that we will swap with another group and observe how they interact with our pack, follow the instructions to make break and focus on the social interactions throughout the process.

So why was everyone baking bread in lockdown? “In these times all of us are experiencing a strongly reduced sense of control over our lives,” she explains. “Self-reliance is a manifestation of control and therefore helps us to meet one of those truly basic human needs: safety. Baking bread is the ultimate act of self-reliance. (https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/lockdown-hobbies-baking-bread-comfort-food-self-care-activities-psychology/375702) There is something comforting and homely about the act of baking bread and eating your own creation. It is an activity for families or individuals to do and come together during worrying and uncertain times.