What is Design? Is it a perfectly idealized product, neatly wrapped, with a concrete plan that interweaves all of the aspects seamlessly? In my experience, most products, even highly-awarded ones are concoctions similar to a Stone Soup. These concoctions are not always well-planned, streamlined, specialized products, but many times jumbled, cooperative by-products of lots of effort, creativity, luck, and the right materials and people at the right time, coming together to bring their best designer's touch to the finished product.
In the children's tale, Stone Soup, three infantrymen wander into a town and ask the villagers if they have any food, as they are very hungry. The villagers, having had so many visitors pass through their village and eat up all their food without thanks or anything, now hide their food, so if visitors come into town, they don't have to share their food with the villagers, and they simply pretend they don't have any. The three infantrymen are creative though, and begin to make Stone Soup, literally boiling water and adding stones to their soup concoction, asking for a little bit of produce here and their from villagers, whatever they can spare. The villagers oblige them with a few bits of food and as the Soup starts getting cooked together, like a hodgepodge, the Soup begins to tingle the taste buds, smelling incredibly delicious. Soon, all of the villagers begin pouring into the giant soup pot a few more things that will make the soup taste even better, contributing a bit from everyone, probably because they all want to have a taste of the delicious soup, and with all the contributions, a feast erupts and the villagers and infantrymen share a night of delicious food together.
On Tuesday, October 5th, Professor Housefield's Design 1 class created their version of Stone Soup. Our group brought together all sorts of materials: colored construction paper, tape, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks. The Design process started, with each individual looking at all the materials, contemplating what to make. An obsession with hanging the still mysterious ornamental creation hooked us on hanging it and attaching the piece to a nearby tree. Soon, some group members began rolling up pieces of paper, taping them together in interesting shapes, and even creating origami. As of yet, no one knew quite what the end product would look like, yet we continued. More people began rolling pieces, I began taping popsicle sticks to the construction paper rolls, and eventually when we had enough rolls, several members began taking the rolls to the tree to attach them in a spiraling fashion. The tree slowly began spiraling up with construction life, with pipe-cleaner flowers popping out of the ground nearby, and other forms of ornamental man-made life contrasting the natural life growing on that spot. A hodgepodge not only of artistic and design creativity emerged, but of natural product and manufactured beauty. The art of design sometimes comes together like Stone Soup.
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