WHAT IF... nature could speak?

What would it tell us? In relation to my dissertation topic, which reiterates that humanity is in trouble (in design and existentially) thanks to our environmental negligence, I pondered what messages our environment would wish to disseminate.

I think my inspiration for the idea came from flipping through Tibor Kalman, Perverse Optimist and more specifically his solicitation piece, this brick with a carefully concealed punchline.

This is how my message idea has played out so far. Although I am considering how to apply it in real ecological settings, like on farm animals and in the grass, trees, and so forth. I guess photoshop is my answer (for now).



Photoshopped attempt to convey a message from nature, which does not look so great.

INK EXPERIMENTATION

To correspond with my paper trials, since you can't purchase vegetable inks easily, I wondered if I could make my own household versions. I read about using vinegar and witch hazel with berries and whatnot. Since red is possibly the easiest colour to create, I preferred the challenge of others. From the depths of my cupboard, I retrieved some Spirulina (algae that is a vitamin/mineral powerhouse!) and Turmeric.

All the components.

Powders


Mixing the turmeric with vinegar


Prepping for use

The ink was rather granulated, so I thought I should heat it up a bit... oops!

I set the Turmeric variety aside to test the Spirulina, this time mixing with witch hazel.

Then I tested out it's fluidity on some paper. It worked much better than the Turmeric.

Why not test out my friendly ink on a pumpkin, which ties into my next set of experiments.

HANDMADE PAPER ROUND 2.

Once I get an idea stuck in my head, it circulates until I can reach some sort of resolution. I revisited my paper experiment, this time with the knowledge that it should work with some fibrous material. In case it failed again, I wanted to use what I had available. I bought this formidable green twine for the Vegan Survival kit but it was never used. The notion of using food waste plagued me still, so I decided to employ my juicer and use the leftover pulp. This was the process.

1. Dicing the twine

2. Soak the twine to loosen the fibers.

3. They didn't loosen all that easily, so I had to do it by hand.

4. I let the twine soak some more while I made the fruit pulp.

5. I removed the delicious looking pulp.

6. I whisked the pulp in the sink with the twine fibers.

7. Then I put the silkscreening frame I was using in the sink and filled it with the gross mixture.

8. Then the moisture was pressed out of the mixture in the frame using layers as per the last experiment.

9. After leaving it to flatten/dry for a bit I flipped over the screen and pressed the mixture to release it from the screen.

10. It looked pretty sick, but hey it's Halloween! Then I left it to dry for a day or two.

11. Meanwhile I thoroughly enjoyed the juice.

12. Ta-da! The paper was done. A bit scary, but nevertheless paperlike.

12. It did kind of freak me out how close-up it somewhat resembled animal skin! Blergh!

EDIBLE PAPER EXPERIMENT

Those who know me, understand I'm a bit of an enviro-fanatic. It is all my Mum's fault too. She raised us preaching about healthy foods, natural products and yoga. I was convinced she was a crazy hippie for most of my teenage years. I didn't realize until years later that the seed had sprouted. I became annoyingly anal about recycling (until my recent revelation that recycling is a great excuse for mass-consumption), despise creating waste and adopted some ridiculous food-additive phobias.

That being said, I'm always seeking ways of making things in avoidance of having to dispose of them. I've been drinking Almond milk for years and I tested out producing my own recently. A nutritionist has told me it is the best milk alternative out there - and it's pretty damn delicious. I had all this fluffy almond meal left over and (obviously) couldn't bear to toss it. It made a decent base for cookies, but for some reason it popped into my brain during my research for tree-free paper options.

Here is how the experiment went down.
1. Almond grinding. I couldn't find any almonds in shells, so blanched had to do. This was possibly my first mistake.

2. Blending with water. Essential to making almond milk. Make a nice syrupy consistency, this thick paste stuff doesn't work.


3. First strain.


4. Second strain. They say to use cheesecloth, I only had a silkscreen frame.


5. What the paste excretes becomes your milk. When the paste has finished straining, add some vanilla extract + agave nectar (sweetener) and toss it back.

6. Make a press-lasagna. Put a towel down, then place the screen with the paste on it over top, next goes one of these blue towel dishcloths, newspapers and give it a good heave to get all the water out.

7. Squish that sucker down with some heavy books and leave it alone for awhile.

In the meantime, you can plan your dinner. Thanks Jamie Oliver for the inspiration + garden/kitchen envy.

This is one of my favourite ways to kill time. It's the stuff of a perfect fall weekend. Pumpkin cookies, a superb book and some tea.

Also, my favourite pastime - a visit to the farmers market.


I also love making food with said farmers market gems. I've never had this psychedelic cabbage before.

I went back to check on my almond paper experiment. It wasn't looking so great. It began to crack and looked like dough. I thought perhaps it just needed more time to dry.

Feeling a bit discouraged, I tried to cheer myself up with another food experiment. Success! This is the most tasty dish I've ever invented. You can't really go wrong with squash though.


The almond paper was a total bust. There weren't any fibers to keep it connected. So on to the next challenge...

FOOD EXPERIMENTS

It was due time for some food experiments. I had attempted sourdough starter before, however I went away for a few days and upon my return discovered it to have become gnarly to the max.

The outcome was an giant improvement, but still needs some work. It tastes very floury, and it's very dense. But still pretty good.

Here's what the starter looked like. It rested above my wardrobe for 3 days, and stirred every 12 hours.

Then I mixed it with the flour, of which I only had a small sampling from random bags.

Let it sit in an oiled dish covered and placed above my wardrobe for safe-keeping. It rested there for 12 hours.

And I was surprised it actually rose! Though the bowl was a bit snug.
After kneading, dividing in 2, and another 6 hour wait, it was time to bake! I woke up early before heading to uni to throw it in the oven.
They didn't rise much in the oven, but they looked pretty good.
I will have to give it another run, try to enhance the flavour and make it less dense. Still I'm happy it wasn't a complete failure.

There was a first-ever apple pie attempt that went down. I threw together a strange oat/dried fruit/nut crust and tossed on some apples and peaches. It wasn't stellar, but it did the job. I shall try some lattice pastry next time.

INTERESTING FACTOIDS FROM MY NOTEBOOK

OK, so I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to learning interesting facts. I always write them down, even if they bare no relevance to anything.

I am avoiding doing any actual work by reexamining my non-dissertation section of my notebook and I stumbled upon a few notes that I felt like sharing with the world (or all 4 of you potential blog followers).

I read a book called THE POWER OF PLACE by Winifred Gallagher and apparently this is all I extracted from that book

1. There are doctors out there using pulsations from electomagnetic fields to try and heal bones and have had some success.
2. Solar magnetic storms were found to be linked to increasing admissions into psychiatric hospitals.
3. Computer screens effect the nervous system.
4. The sense of novelty jacks up adrenaline.

WHAT ELSE?

My context tutor told me that boiling a kettle uses as much energy as a fridge does in an entire day. Further research has confirmed this. Time to limit tea consumption, and ensure not to boil more water than necessary.

FINALLY, some music.
This is the song that enabled the near waterwork encounter at the Villagers gig.
Thanks to Emilia for finding this!

PLEDGE HANDMADE

In the spirit of my dissertation topic, I thought I would post a link to this most marvelous pledge that I found via the website of an environmentally friendly letterpress/design studio in Oakville Ontario. Twenty points for Canada. I run on the point system.

Anyway I think everyone and every company under the sun (and perhaps beyond?) should make the pledge.

So go forth and BUY HANDMADE!

STUDIO SHOOT

I was feeling a bit proactive considering how little I know about photographing in a studio, using various lighting and whatnot. My lovely housemate and I decided we should book the studio at Uni and take advantage of it while we could. Jenn was handy and became my model. Easy peasy. Thanks to Mimi and Mikee for stepping in and switching it up.





I also snapped Seamus while he was hammering on the g-tar.