Feedback Week 10

Jack: "blown off"?

Four Walls: Try start with Dead meat. There is a bit of a disconnect with that line to the rest. Reordering. Less bricks.

Drinking: Love the vomitting sound. Words don't work except, "I should've died with them". Try either food story, eg: that was the best meal I ever got or memory of what happened makes him gag and throw up. That can be memory of food, or of living conditions in trenches.

Print.
Try straight image, eg. hospital bed (of their time)
Text is too far up. Should be the main central focus.
Try reverse text. Try square. The idea of blocks and 90' being the structure of the army.

Virginity: what do they call their penises? "When the army shoved disinfectant up my ____. No way in hell that worked. I caught syphilis. It was fatal back then".

Sound Tests 2

Sound: evacuation alarm in dark cinema.
We took comfort in the noise. It meant that we weren’t deaf—yet. Or dead—yet. Silence, well… That meant there was a shell above you. Our bodies would scream to get the hell out of there, but fear paralysed you. And soon, silence was all that followed.

Maybe evacuation alarm should be to contrast our reactions to it and theirs.
Us: Oh shit! Let's get out of here.
Them: Yeah fantastic! We're getting out of here.

The copy above suggests that even the noise was dreadful (find bad noise, noisy)—they were glad to hear it as it meant they were still alive.
Maybe this:




List of top 10 annoying sounds:
http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/the-top-10-most-annoying-sounds.

The worst sounds in the world
1. Knife on a bottle
2. Fork on a glass
3. Chalk on a blackboard
4. Ruler on a bottle
5. Nails on a blackboard
6. Female scream
7. Anglegrinder
8. Brakes on a cycle squealing
9. Baby crying
10. Electric drill

Post freak out feedback.

I am creating a taster of multiple tastes for audiences to go "huh, wow" and go to the exhibition.

1st part—targeting through every day touch points.

2nd part—providing a twist by connecting our every day to soldier's everyday story evoking a "huh wow".

3rd part—directing audiences to the exhibition.

Create intrigue by juxtaposing our everyday and their everyday.

The reason no one left a solemn boy and returned a smiling man.

Juxtaposition of going and returning. He left as something and returned something else. Innocence lost Sometimes as a better man. They grew up in a hurry, became boys to men. Returned traumatized but as better people. Positive?

List out both, and make twists.

Use our everyday and make a comment on their everyday.

Eg. wake up—get dressed (they are already dressed, with lice), brush teeth (no water to brush with), breakfast. getting to work, workplace, food, cafes, coffee break, lunch.

Toilet paper. Wet. No toilet paper.

Find stories that we don't hear of. Unheard stories of war.
All sorts of tasters, good and bad, funny and sad.

eg. bonding in communal toilets.

eg. sound: crying (what type of crying?)— Tell story of (name) friend crying in no mans land, been shot, trapped in mud, about to die but nothing can be done.

eg. smell good: that was a smell that they didn't smell for four years.

Food: can you give me a sense of what it was like through words? Do I actually have to physically see it?

There needs to be a twist. eg. Our everyday: Baby's cry—twisted to a story of a soldier. 

Make and try things out, write things out.

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Movie theatre.
Sound: baby crying.

There was a certain atmosphere that spread. Scared of being scared.

Coffee cup:
What is the connection of the cup and context—The time it takes you to drink this coffee is the only rest we got. This saved my life every day. 

What does no rest look like? Physical effects, tiredness. Climbing, walking, marching, 

Fighting only took up ___% of their time. 

More feedback. Moving forward

Agree with comments that these installations were too literal and were too far removed from TA's everyday to evoke the emotion I wanted.

No point showing them what war was like, they don't know how to relate to that anyway. Show them something they DO know how to relate to. (This sounds so obvious; it baffles how my mind hasn't clarified it until now).

• Develop the storytelling around it to make me engage with it. Story for empathy.
• You need an AHA moment. One that makes the TA go "fuuuckkk..."
• 2 courses on meal/cracker told a story.
• Modern day "holy shit—currently too literal.
• eg. meal in army: cans and sachets—put the whole lot together and mix it. Make TA think why would you do that?
• TA comes across it, something happened elsewhere. eg. line up at MAWSA for free lunch, and given gloop. Or looks delicious and tastes like nothing.
• Then connect that experience to the exhibition. Make TA think "Shit, that was interesting. I want to experience more like it".
• eg. Movie theatre, lights out. Sound: loud beating of heart, for 5 minutes. Evoke, waiting and anxiety.
• These have to come from real stories. eg. the anticipation of a wife as she awaits her husband's return. Or a soldier who never saw his child being born and now he's 5 years old. Sound: baby crying.
• What are the contemporary sounds that make us feel anxious? Eg. sirens
• Crying at war was contagious.
• Wrap up tone must be pragmatic. The emotion comes from the experience.
• WHAT ARE ALL THE THINGS GOING THROUGH THEIR HEADS? eg. the waiting, how am I going to die. If it went quiet, that meant the shell was above them.\
• How do you show them?

Where to from here:

1. What are all the things going on through their heads?

2. How are you going to show them?

3. How are you going to tell them what it means?

Interim Feedback

Installations need much more context to challenge the TA norms or everyday, they need to act as conduits to know more, drive them to the knowledge/exhibition at TP. They seem a tad 'easy/literal' at this stage. What is it that you want them to experience, what is on offer? Food and body installations to underwhelming, no surprise yet. Sound has potential but what is the insight/takeaway? Smell too easy and the corpse idea is too literal. It could just be about offensive smells and how re recoil

Feedback from Euan.

• Can you latch your message on to existing examples of smell, noise etc.
• Does it have to be a stand alone installation?
• Look at public intervention
• What are the key things to help people understand to contextualise exhibit at Te Papa? Help them walk a few footsteps in soldiers' shoes, with an obvious link back to the exhibition.
• Your work needs to function as a reminder and a motivator.
• Make sure you know what you want people to think and do after the experience. Clear and defined SMP and CTA.
• Think strategically, what could you do to go in your portfolio. Do creative executions, not just documentation of creative executions (when referring to documentation video).

Things to do next/conceptualise:

• Brainstorm alternative executions
• Write SMP again and again.
• How do I link the contemporary lifestyle with the exhibition? Do I slip something in with coffee or something that serves as a reminder and a motivator.
• Installation is a little too removed from target audience. Most might wander around it instead of engage with it. How do I ensure the engagement by latching on to something they already do—but presenting it from a different perspective? Make them think about their lives and the connection to soldiers. Maybe emphasise the same age in soldiers.

Interim Presentation

Went terribly. I think I had a heart attack right after it. Feeling discouraged.

3 minutes was not enough as I didn't have the time to fully edit and reflect on the work I had done to concisely express myself.

I'm having doubts as whether my work will make sense to anyone but me. According to Euan, it's time to start writing some stories and copy. and stop focussing so much on playing with the senses.

It makes sense. Of course I'm not going to throw an audience into an experience without explaining the connection to them. It just has to be done early (ie. now), so that others can understand why I am doing what I am.

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I am creating a communications campaign that utilises all five senses to engage young and disconnected New Zealanders with Anzac history.

My project with be the hypothetical campaign for the (very real) experiential Weta Workshop Anzacs exhibition in Te Papa.

I intend on creating 3 installations that focus on the feelings evoked within soldiers at Gallipoli. The audience will receive a takeaway memento, which serves as a call to action and also so they can share the experience with others.

SMP

Workshop: Message & Audience Feedback

Message workshop pointers:

• The message is in the food itself, and embodied in the event. How do you articulate the message to them?
• Is it verbal? Do I verbally tell people the story behind the food message? Would I have a team, trained to relay the message to talk to the rations? Is there takeaway information? Like takeaway food?
• Is this a food stand/cart? How is it branded?
• Where is the message located in the branding/tangible things apart from food?
• Make the audience appreciate historical circumstances
• In message: explain what it's got to do with 'me' (audience). How do I/have I benefited from them going through this? Appreciation in a negative way—eg "thank God it wasn't me", like people in modern times living in period settings. Thankfulness/gratefulness.
• How is it served? Is it a packaging & branding exercise where the rations are served in a metal tin, bento box style, eaten then are returned?

Audience workshop pointers:

• How do you get them to care outside their friends, family, flat etc...
• Teaser to exhibition.
• Food is a tiny aspect of your project. Don't just focus here.

Thoughts:

• Get people to huddle in a small space to recreate huddling and eating in trenches.
• Vending machine style. Swipe phone/something to receive digital info and experience box.
• 
  

Poster Presentation

Headstone.

Compartment for smell container. Soil + metals for trenches and blood.

Title of hardtack cracker that was eaten monotonously.

Through experience design, food can serve as a new form of Anzac memorialisation to engage with and generate empathy within young, disconnected New Zealanders.

Anzac Day is central to New Zealand’s cultural collective memory. However, a survey I conducted showed that 66% of youth aged 17-25 felt removed from the war, citing an association with boredom and a lack of personal connection as leading causes.

My investigation into present forms of Anzac memorialisation revealed the dominance of static, one-way communication. This traditional model is ineffective as audiences have developed immunity from its repetitive and inflexible nature (Gobé, 2001). Experience design can engage and connect with an audience “in a personal, memorable way” (Pine & Gilmore, 1998, p. 99). With a strong focus on visual and aural experiences, previous Anzac memorials have neglected the strengths of touch, taste, and smell in communication and memory creation (Kavanagh, 2000).

Food is a commonality that can link cultures and generations (Guptil, Copelton & Lucal, 2013). Through this lens, I began my design response by replicating the monotonous diets of the Anzac soldiers. There was a high level of interest in this experiment as it provided a different angle to the Anzac story. Furthermore, it provided a personalised experience by inviting the audience to generate their own meaning.

My research through personal accounts informed my following experiments. I focussed on replicating the food eaten, place eaten, time eaten and time between eating.

I propose to create a palatable memorial experience as a new form of Anzac commemoration. By utilising food as a commonality, I intend on focussing on the forgotten senses to communicate a sense of time and place—providing young, disconnected New Zealanders a ‘first hand experience’ of war.

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Feedback:

•  engage with big stories through little things.
• initiating sparkr of empathy to create bigger interest for further research
• food to start conversation—Anzac biscuits have just become this thing we eat without further thought. Cracker can start a conversation (talk about the things people have said after eating cracker)
• Precedents: Holocaust Museum Washington DC, Vietnam Veterrans Memorial DC (shiny granite, 'see yourself in it'. Cambodian killing fields: 'last sound they heard'.
• Forgotten senses: talk about Anzac Day story can be told through taste (mainly); and find other potential applicable stories that can be told through another forgotten sense.
• What are the memorials like now? Why are they boring? (required to have interest already prior to engagement?)
• Talk about the audience: how they live in the 'now', moment to moment type living. # yolo and other trendytype talk.

Crit Feedback

Notes from feedback today with (the amazing) Tanya:

• Discourse on new forms of memory preservation
• As the centenary is approaching, people will want to commemorate. People are going to do tried and true methods—which may not be connecting with users in new ways, simply recycling it.
• Gaynor Kavanagh—dream spaces memory and museum. READ
• CP: connecting and empathizing of a past event through the forgotten senses.
• Sensory output is usually limited to audio/visual. What about taste, smell, touch? Forgotten senses.
• How can smell create a sense of place—eg smell dirt to fabricate/frame the context.
• Do I focus only on the forgotten senses or all of the senses; but prioritizing the 3?
• Transition of food over time: degrade or amplified. Time ration of  the day, eg food released only at certain periods, even if you are starving to simulate sense of place. See Blake Fall-Conroy's Minimum Wage Machine.
  

• Story told by victims vs reality that happened.
• Generational diminish of story as they filter down.

The war took more than 100,000 New Zealanders overseas, many for the first time. Some anticipated a great adventure but found the reality very different. Being so far from home made these New Zealanders very aware of who they were and where they were from. In battle they were able to compare themselves with men from other nations. Out of this came a sense of a separate identity, and many New Zealand soldiers began to refer to themselves as ‘Kiwis’. 

'New Zealand and the First World War', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/first-world-war-overview/introduction, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 5-Apr-2013

Almost 60% of the 100,000 New Zealanders who went to war became casualties. More than 18,000 died of wounds or disease – 12,483 of them in France and Belgium. From a population of little more than a million people in 1914, this meant that about one in four New Zealand men between the ages of 20 and 45 was either killed or wounded.

'The human impact - Passchendaele', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/new-zealanders-in-belgium/soldiers-stories, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 20-Dec-2012

On daily life and food 

You had no soap. We never washed. Our knife and fork and spoon you dug it into the earth and then wiped the dirt off it, just clean any grease that might be on it. Bully beef in tins, that’s what we were living on and you’d put the tea in the lid and the stew that was stewed up in the other part, and when you’d finished it you cleaned it as well as you could and put it on your belt and waited for the next meal. When we were in the front line we used to get a piece of bread and that was our food for the 24 hours while we were there. And then we had dixies, we used go back and get tea, of a sort. And of course you couldn’t drink any of the water without it was tested because everything was poisoned before we got there.

Life on the battlefield Pictures


To look at:
Diaryhttp://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-CoxDiar-t1-body-d7.html
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/video/gallipoli-diary

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/researching-first-world-war-soldiers

Gaynor Kavanaghhttp://books.google.co.nz/books?id=xxuKLVrH0yEC&pg=PA3&lpg=PA3&dq=gaynor+kavanagh+dream+spaces+memory+and+museum&source=bl&ots=svZyGLZIIc&sig=1twmtWraOYJrM__0ZvdHpGm7UYI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vnKMUbXsJIWgigeCnoD4DQ&redir_esc=y

Crit feedback

from Lee, who is amazing.

• What do you want to achieve?
• How are you going about it?
• Why does this need to be done?
• What do you say? What do they receive?
• Where does this come from? A company selling biscuits? Museum? RSA?
• Cultural Memory, generational memory.
• Not memory, per se, but not forgetting.
• Look at previous Anzac campaigns & communication. Analyze.

Crit Review & Reflections

My recreated Anzac soldier's diets sought to give people who hadn't experienced the war first hand, a small feeling of what it was like to be in it.

The context was that younger NZers did not know much about the war. The frequent exposure to gore, brutality and tragedy through sensationalized media has resulted in a desensitized culture, rending previous methods of immersion, such as reading a book or watching a documentary, less effective.

I am proposing the use of food (with its engagement of all five senses) as a method of engaging with our desensitized society.

I'm beginning to tie my research in tighter by proposing the question: How can food and experiential design create empathy within a desensitized contemporary culture?

Marije Vogelzang on connecting people with food, creating an understanding.