Draft Proposition
The aim of my design outcome for this project is to essentially provoke thought, confront, or as titled, support change in the food labelling industry. The packaging and labelling of food has undoubtedly become part of the consumer experience, with the actual physical touch or interface between consumer and product understood now as emotional consumption. Consumers have an almost blinding trust in what they see to be true, believing labels to provide the health intelligence of each product. However as has been realised over the past few weeks, this trust has bred a culture of sameness, whereby (in an Australian context) the supermarket is dosed in false promises, the most notable of these in current media, the ‘100% made in Australia’ label. Consumers have overtime therefore come to, as analysed through such a national context, develop a ‘misplaced patriotism’ when it comes to their purchases. Despite being exposed in a recent hepatitis A scare earlier in February this year, the majority of the Australian public have still agreed to the printing of the still ambiguous ‘50% or less’ or ‘50% or more’ made in Australia labels. What does this achieve for the health conscious consumer? What does this achieve for creating greater transparency between consumer, product, and origin? The answer is sadly still that consumers are driving, or rather allowing, this ‘culture of sameness’ that leaves one uninformed and in the dark when it comes to the origins of their food.
Although not the instigators of this mislabelling issue, it is clear that consumers and their willingness to be mislead by major food companies and the government have essentially bread this breach in food security. As the majority market that supports this billion-dollar industry, my design proposition seeks (as previously discussed) to provoke, confront and activate the average consumer into wanting greater awareness, and information, about the origins of their daily food purchases. It is a design action to support change.
Draft Brief
To achieve such provocation, I therefore propose to re-purpose local and imported food as a consumer confrontational piece. As such, my outcome will act more as an instillation, rather than a object or design that can be used. The reason for this is that the ultimate goal will be to bring greater awareness to consumers how little choice we actually have regarding food sources.
To achieve such provocation, I therefore propose to re-purpose local and imported food as a consumer confrontational piece. As such, my outcome will act more as an instillation, rather than a object or design that can be used. The reason for this is that the ultimate goal will be to bring greater awareness to consumers how little choice we actually have regarding food sources.
The realisation of this aim is still in rough frameworks, however there is certainty in a final physical form. I desire to either manipulate food packaging, or food itself, so as to create ambiguity, confusion or even concern in a consumer’s eyes. This may be achieved by: painting familiar products or produce in one colour, making their identity / freshness ambiguous, removing all labels from one food type so that similarly the brand, labels, information are removed and the consumer is as much as in the dark about the origin as they would be even with such information, or creating a hypothetical ‘made in Australia’ aisle where the shelves are essentially depleted and empty. These ideas are currently still at draft stage but it can be seen of a commonality in wanting to firstly intrigue an audience, followed by confusion and provocation. In saying this, there is a second aim in my design realisation in that it is to evoke an emotive response from the audience. On an emotional level, the audience will be able to re-assess their nonchalance with supermarket manipulation. There is also intent to bring the developing idea of ‘supermarket patriotism’ and creating play with the common, yet untrue label of ‘100% made in Australia’. By manipulating real and existing objects, the medium chosen to express my outcome will most likely be photography, as a medium able to best mimic reality.
In manipulating familiar / recognised labels, foods and packaging to resemble opposite truths, I ultimately hope to challenge common convention that consumers have all the information and knowledge about their produce in the palm of their hands. By exposing such, I hope to create greater understanding, but more importantly, create a reason for consumers to care about their produce to such a level that they may be able to, (by power in numbers) create social change and break this ‘culture of sameness’ of labeling in local supermarkets.
In manipulating familiar / recognised labels, foods and packaging to resemble opposite truths, I ultimately hope to challenge common convention that consumers have all the information and knowledge about their produce in the palm of their hands. By exposing such, I hope to create greater understanding, but more importantly, create a reason for consumers to care about their produce to such a level that they may be able to, (by power in numbers) create social change and break this ‘culture of sameness’ of labelling in local supermarkets.
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