We all know that we should eat more healthily than we do.
We all know that all packaged foods, regardless of type, contribute to our current ecological malaises.
We all know we needs must do more ourselves, be more proactive and vigorous in questions of our food and nutrition and the environment.
But it's all so complicated, all sooo difficult, all soooooooo time-consuming.......
Really?
Realised by Ebba Lönn in context of the project Earth 2 Earth at Lund University School of Industrial Design, a project which challenged Masters students to develop a project/object with a circular perspective crafted from beech wood, a material to which we shall return, Second Season is an analogue device for preparing dried apple rings. Arguably rings of any fruit/vegetable suitable for drying.
An analogue device for preparing dried apple rings that functions via you hanging moist rings of apple, or any other suitable fruit/veg, on the beech rods. And then leaving it/them in a warm sunny place.
For our part we're struggling to see what is all so complicated, all sooo difficult, all soooooooo time-consuming in that.
Are very much seeing the dried fruit and veg rings that you'll be healthily snacking on through the winter without having to purchase items which, for all they may have been purchased unpacked, have been processed and transported. But are invariably purchased packed.
And we're also seeing a very simple pedagogic effect through play, which could be useful in helping wean coming generations from our unhealthy crutches. If weaning them of those unhealthy electronic apples we all rely on may take a little more time. And commitment from us all.
Beyond the simplicity, the persuasiveness, the empowerment, and the most engaging formal expression of those Ebba has achieved, we particularly liked Second Season's very nice juxtaposition to the myriad projects that design students of all nations have developed over the years to enable Europeans to breed and eat mealworms and associated insects that can be farmed in our own homes. Mealworms and associated insects we strongly suspect Europeans will never ever adopt as a foodstuff, despite the myriad excellent arguments for consuming mealworms and associated insects. But dried fruit. We can all do that. We all want to do that. And having done that we may all get round to using those pasta machines that lurk in the back of all our kitchen cupboards, rather than buying the packaged stuff.
And also very much enjoyed Second Season as both an object between craft and design, as a discourse on craft and design, and an object between commercial design and open design, as an object that should be put out there as a common good free to all rather than a consumer good. With apologies to Ebba who may view that differently, and ultimately the end decision is of course Ebba's as the legal author of the work; but for us it is an object for society above profit, an object from which society should profit. From which society can profit.
And thus a very nice, very satisfying, example of how design influences behaviour, in positive and negative senses, be that furniture design, interior design, textile design, kitchen goods design, whatever. That key difference between art and design: while art can encourage, demand, campaign, provoke, et al it is always an indirect force, design always has direct agency. Which underscores the responsibility of the designer, the responsibility of design, to any and every society. A responsibility that not all take as seriously as they should, thereby shifting the obligation to us all, collectively and individually.
Which brings us back to the beech wood employed in Second Season. A material demanded on account of Earth 2 Earth's location within the multi-partner Pro Bok initiative that seeks to encourage greater use of Swedish beech by Swedish industry. A desire, arguably, not unlinked to the Swedish Forest Agency's role in Pro Bok, and who, one presumes, manage large acreages of Swedish beech; and which for all it, despite such influence, and our cynicism, may have positive aspects, it does tend to ignore that fact that the beech tree is particularly susceptible to climate change, is one of those woods Europe may have to learn to move from, that creating products in beech isn't to take a long term view.
That as things stand we're moving from Pro Bok to Ingen Bok.
A situation that can still be avoided, but which would involve us all becoming, and amongst a great many other things, more proactive and vigorous in questions of our food and nutrition and the environment, involve us all doing more ourselves, consuming fewer packaged foods and eating healthier.
Which makes the beech wood Second Season an admonishment to act and a tool to act in one.
And thus a particularly nice example of another important circular perspective that designers can take. Arguably must take.
More information on Ebba Lönn can be found on LinkedIn @Ebba Lönn
More information on Earth 2 Earth, including details of all realised projects, can be found at https://lusid.se/earth-to-earth
