Entertainment as a communication and experimental platform can be effectively applied for introducing students to social issues related to food equity, nutrition, and security in classroom learning environments. Educational projects at the intersection of food and entertainment has the potential to raise awareness about social issues and encourage students to creatively think about innovative solutions using digital entertainment tools and human-centered design methodologies. This paper presents the results of our exploration at the intersection of food and entertainment by introducing the concept of edible entertainment to students in a graduate level course in a university setting.
The main goal of this social experimentation is to explore the opportunity at the intersection of food & entertainment for awareness, explore new innovations & knowledge retention among students. The educational goals of the 12-week project was to (1) Develop an awareness on the topic of food inequity issues, nutrition security and health among students specializing in computer graphics technology, (2) Co-create authentic food experiences through personal, cultural, and social narratives and (3) Prototype entertaining digital food design solutions to address food equity issues.
Our research objectives in designing this interdisciplinary project is to encourage non-traditional solutions in project-based educational methods. We created a platform for students to identify taste diversity parameters in additive food manufacturing processes and to develop socio-culturally validated authenticity in digital food design solutions that addresses food equity issues.
Students were introduced to the topics of food security, nutrition, and equity through classroom lectures, that was followed by weekly exercises that added new layers of design constraints in the ideation, prototyping and testing phases. The design process was divided into the following steps (1) Personal narrative on food - emotion mapping reflections (2) Exploring physical and digital materials involved in the mapping (3) Framing a digital food experience based on steps 1,2 and situating it in a cultural & social context (4) Identifying tools, material, and processes for the experience creation (5) Prototyping a digital food probe that embodies the food experience (6) Collecting feedback and refining the prototype. The criteria for evaluating the projects was based on (1) Feasibility of prototype in improving taste diversity in additive food manufacturing process (2) Application of inclusive play interactions in digital food experience design to enhance the entertaining value of the product.
The expected outcome of this experiential learning are to (1) Develop an understanding of food equity issues and the importance of additive manufacturing technologies (3D printing) to address the problem (2) Develop prototypes of digital food design solutions that embody diverse narratives and edible taste interactions (3) Identify ways to apply this digital prototype to resolve real-world food equity and nutrition security problems.
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