Mandar
Rane's
"Visual Appetite"

~
Many things have changed after I left commercial work and
started my career as a teacher, when I was inspired by Prof.
Kirti Trivedi towards teaching Graphic Design and referred me
to Department of Design, IIT Guwahati, Assam, India with aim
to focus towards teaching design in India addressing Indian context
and its communication needs. I have yet to learn a lot and I
am finding my perspectives towards the discipline changing drastically
after graduating from IDC, IIT Bombay.
I see my future as a graphic design educator adhering to the
manifesto, "First things First" originally written
in 1964 by British graphic Designer Ken Garland, which I still
believe is a fresh call to arm graphic designers to use their
talents for more useful and lasting form of communications, and
primarily for me, in the Indian context.
The manifesto.
"In common with an increasing number of the general public,
we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched
scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think
that there are other things more worth of using our skill and
experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books
and periodicals, catalogues and instruction manuals... and all
the other media through which we promote our trade, our education,
our culture and our greater awareness of the world" (First
things First, Ken Garland 1964)
~
Visual Appetite
[a recent work]
Every name has its own inherent strength to express itself.
With this, strength the name tries to encapsulate its meaning
and picture in the viewer's mind. It often happens that we know
someone by his name, but actually have never met him. Unless,
we meet him in-person, we keep on trying to visualize/guess his
personality, which sometimes meets our expectations or leaves
us surprised. This is quite applicable to anything, be it, a
place, person or a thing. One normally encounters oneself with
similar situations when he/she visits restaurants and is greeted
with a Menu card. It seemed necessary to investigate, when the
names on the Menu cards in Indian restaurants were found to be
handicapped in expressing themselves, emitting a scent "alien"
from their true form. The idea is of envisaging a device, which
will provide an interactive preview of the food and inform the
diner about a country's cuisine and culture.

above: opening page of the presentation

Cultural Journeys talks about diversity of the culinary
art that exists across the various states in India & the
traditional way of serving food in a thali - a metal plate or
banana leaf in which lunch or dinner is served in India.
_______________________________________________________________________

Manacles of Language begins with an analogy to explain
how difficult it is to visualize a delicacy in a restaurant before
it is ordered. An information graphic complements the thought.
_______________________________________________________________________

Delayed Reality explains the current scenario about the
linear process of ordering food in an Indian restaurant. The
illustration analyses the gap that exists between, anticipation
of the food by the diner and the final reality.
_______________________________________________________________________

Information Flowering introduces the envisaged idea of
a device, which can provide an interactive preview of a 'thali'.
It mentions about creating interesting associations, and accentuating
dishes or delicacies beyond the gamut of Menu cards.
________________________________________________________________________

Fragrance for the future, talks about the application of idea
in various contexts, without missing to mention the balance of
the two scents (traditions and technology), considered as the
most important to create a fragrance in the near future.
_______________________________________________________________________
Detailed text about the JPGs with headings
Visual Appetite: 'Cultural journeys'
The culinary art in India is spread across 28 different states,
each having an identity of its own, enriching the great Indian
cuisine. Diversity of Indian cuisine is not just unique to a
particular state, but also inherent in a single meal. It is these
complexities of regional food in India, which makes it very fascinating.
The example quoted here is of a 'thali'- (a circular metal
plate or banana leaf in which lunch and dinner is served in India)
which consists of small bowls, each containing different delicacies
harmoniously clubbed together to form a single meal. Having lunch
or dinner from a thali in an Indian restaurant could be a more
meaningful experience, if designers consider the ramifications
of Indian cuisines, which can lead through cultural journeys,
much and more beyond, than just serving one's appetite.
Dinning can be made a more engaging experience, if we are
able to sense and feel the traditional scents of Indian cuisine,
which are currently void in the restaurant menu cards. Eating
from a thali is quite common in most parts of India and usually,
name of the state always precedes the word thali, for it to be
identified from that particular state. For e.g., a thali from
'Assam' (a state in northeastern part of India), will be termed
as 'Assamese thali'. To elaborate on the design scent, I would
cite here an example of 'Assamese thali' versus the Menu cards.
The idea is of finding a way into the Indian cuisine and culture,
through a thali.
'Manacles of Language'
Every name has its own inherent strength to express itself.
With this strength the name tries to encapsulate its meaning
and picture in the viewer's mind. It often happens that we know
someone by his name, but actually have never met him. Unless,
we meet him in-person, we keep on trying to visualize/guess his
personality, which sometimes meets our expectations or leaves
us surprised. This is quite applicable to anything, be it, a
place, person or a thing.
One normally encounters a similar situation when one visits
restaurants and is greeted with Menu cards. It seemed necessary
to investigate, when the names in the Menu cards of Indian restaurants
were found to be handicapped in expressing themselves, emitting
a scent 'alien' from their true form.
This itself channelized the thought of providing justice to
the lexicons of Indian cuisines, demonstrating the design scent
of transforming meals into a quality experience for the diner.
It aims at respecting the complexities of regional foods, rituals,
customs and practices, as well as sharing them across countries
and cultures, releasing the diner from the manacles of language.
'Delayed Reality'
Typographically menu cards might have adorned themselves to
make food more appealing, but they are still not able to transcend
the barriers of language. With 18 official languages and varied
menu offered in each of the states, it becomes difficult for
(almost) the first language English, to translate meanings into
realities.
The current scenario of having a meal in Indian restaurants,
follows a linear process and transfers an anticipated preview
of the food to the diner, with the help of English and the regional
language trying to represent the meaning in the diner's mind.
Words (names of the dishes) are supported with adjectives like
special or traditional trying to emphasize on uniqueness of each
dish with the help of a Menu Card.
The design scent here is to question the potential of the
words, alone, to represent themselves in the diner's mind in
comparison with the delayed reality (relating to the interval
between ordering and serving of food). It tries to explore the
boundaries of meanings, beyond words, for a diner to savor his
taste of the culture and cuisine.
'Information Flowering'
The idea is of envisaging a device, which will provide an
interactive preview of the food, for the diner. The diner will
be able to navigate through dishes and understand the essence
of a thali. This preview will act as a visual expression of the
meal, informing about each delicacy, on a tangible gesture, upon
the interactive surface, by the diner.
If a certain dish evokes the diner's curiosity, he will be
able to opt for a video preview of the same. The diner can also
explore the palette of aromatic Indian spices, which are not
only known for their medicinal properties, but also play a major
role in imparting flavor and taste to the Indian food from centuries.
The 'thali' will be able to create interesting associations and
accentuate a dish, to the extent of sharing its relationship
in history, e.g. the 'Mattiboro Dali' (a kind of cereal in Assam),
with rice and eggs was used as a mixture to substitute cement
in the 17th century marvel 'Talatal Ghar', which still attracts
lots of tourists to Assam. In this world of globalization, such
a device would help create deeper understanding of cross-cultural
issues, For example: In the west food is consumed with fork and
spoons, where as the Japanese rely on chopsticks and Indians
eat their food with their own hands. Every festival in India
calls in for an array of delicacies which are special to those
occasions, e.g.
Bihu (harvest festival) is celebrated in Assam with the preparation
of 'Pitha', a sweet dish made out of rice), stuffed with sesame
and coconut, very unique to this festival. Special dishes made
on special occasions can have their share in displaying and adorning
themselves for the knowledge of the diner.
The diner will be able to explore the multifaceted nature
of Indian cuisine by opting for food from various states of India,
since the food and language are peculiar to each state. It can
offer him a wide range of options, where he can visually decide
his choice rather than relying on his intuition. The concept
here is to give an experience of the food item before it is ordered
and (also about the ritual in terms of which it should be consumed,
in every culture). It aims at rediscovering dining and guide
the diner into an experience of a country's cuisine.
As per Indian tradition one should
not waste food and should eat a complete meal without any leftovers.
In an interactive mode the diner will be able to predetermine
the amount of food (which is likely to be variable in various
restaurants), taking into consideration his likes and dislikes,
primarily for natives, who are familiar with the menu. An interactive
preview would also serve as a true representation for a traveller,
who is unaware of the Indian cuisine and its delicacies.
Design of such an experience could do justice to the unspoken
information, hidden inside a country's cuisine, which either
would have gone unnoticed. The homogenous nature of the concept
does not limit it to just restaurants, but can be compared to
the cuisines of other countries, who are rich in their cultures.
The theme can be adopted in various contexts; where people
from different cultures come together or where choices are to
be made, e.g. (interactive food service in an airplane, where
minimum interaction is possible due to constraints of space,
or dining desks of restaurants in relation to the tourism industries,
where a meal could create an experience to be carried back).
All this may not sound untrue with the upcoming flexible polymer
film based LCD screens, which are paper-thin. Ideas may branch
out commercially to find their place in tourism industry or service
industry, but the main aim is to strike a balance between both,
to find solutions without killing the legacies of the past (our
traditions) and the coming future (technology).
The picture towards the right (please refer the picture above)
is the newer version of a thali, I accidentally came across at
a restaurant in Assam, affected by the winds of commercialization.
Before the traditional scents get lost under the perfumes of
modernization, we need to nurture these invisible scents, revisit
them, in order to preserve their aesthetic sense and beauty.
Efforts should be made towards, involving audiences in an inviting
experience, while eating a 'thali' in India, by maturing ourselves
to get sensitive to these traditional scents. We should take
care that these traditions don't fade off under the strong scents
of growing technology, but move towards, creating a balance of
both. They could be thought of as the most important factors
in creating a fragrance for the future.
~
Mandar S. Rane
Assistant Professor ~ Communication Design
Department of Design
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
North Guwahati -781039
Assam, INDIA
e-mail : mandarr@iitg.ernet.in
wwweb: http://www.mrane.com
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