Digital portraits of meal gatherings–or 局 in Mandarin–where Chinese international students forge a temporary home while living in a foreign place.
Eating is a cultural biological process. For people who live far away from home, food-oriented, communal rituals can serve the purpose of identity affirmation and cultural preservation. In any culture, food is a big deal. In my culture, which is Chinese culture, having meals with friends and families is a quintessential part of social part. When young Chinese people find themselves living abroad for an extended period of time, food gatherings become even more important, since it is our way of creating a sense of home for each other while being so far away.
The word 局 means “gatherings” in general. 饭局, for example, are food gatherings, whereas 牌局 means gatherings where we play cards together.
In my life, we use this word a lot, almost every day when we ask each other to get food together again. It highlights a communal feeling, and emphasizes that food is always about coming together–“family-style,” using the American term here, is the only style. We rarely split portions before we eat. Even strangers would reach into the same dish with their chopsticks. Perhaps it is because this type of etiquette and implied trust that I reply so much on these food gathering to find a sense of safety and comfort.
I want to explore ways to capture these feelings of togetherness and comfort in these food gatherings.
Process
I want to experiment with photogrammetry because I was drawn to the idea of digital sculptures–freezing a 3-dimensional moment in life, perhaps imperfectly. There was a lot of other open questions that I didn’t know how to approach as I started the process, however. How would I present these sculptures? How should I find/articulate the narrative behind this typology? Would my Chinese peers agree with my appreciation and analysis of our food culture? I carried these questions into the process.
My machine/procedure:
- on-site capture
- I asked many different groups of friends whether I can take 5 minutes during their meals to take a series of photos. Everybody, even acquaintances whom I didn’t know so well said yes!
- During the meals, I asked them to maintain a “candid” pose for me for 2 minutes as I went around to take their photos.
- (I also recorded 3d sound but didn’t have time to put it in)
- build 3D models in Metashape
- Cinema 4D
- After I built the models, I experimented with the cinematic approach to present them. I put them into cinema 4D and created a short fly-threw for each sculpture.
- I recorded ambient, environmental sounds from the restaurants where I captured the scenes
Media Objects
Reflection
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On the choice of photogrammetry
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The sculptures look frozen, messy, and fragmented. I see bodies, colors, suspense, a kind of expressionist quality (?). What I don’t see are details, motion, faces, identity.
- Embrace it or go for more details?
- I need to be more careful with technical details. A lot of details are lost when transferring from MetaShape to cinema 4D.
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- On presentation
- Am I achieving the goal of capturing the communal feeling?
- What if I add in sound?
- The choice of making this cinematic? Interactive?
- On more pointed subject matters
- What if I capture special occasions, like festivals, not just casual, mundane meals?