FINAL PROJECT

Final Project (Share Unit)

The final assignment for this class was to make a dish out of ingredients that were found at most 50 miles away. Last Friday, I went to Maple Avenue Market located in Vienna where I found that they didn't sell many products grown 50 miles from George Mason University or even in the state of Virginia. The store owner told me that I should try the store "Local Market" which is located in Falls Church. She told me that they may have more products grown in the state of Virginia. I went over the "Local Market" and found that they also didn't have the ingredients I was looking for and not a very big selection of locally grown products in the state of Virginia. I told the shop owner that I have an assignment in a class in university where I need to find ingredients grown at most fifty miles from my university. She also told me that most of their ingredients are not grown in the state of Virginia or even fifty miles away from Fairfax except their scallions, spices, and meat. I looked around the store and found that they were selling sea salt that was from Falls Church so I purchased it from the store for $1.50. On Saturday, I woke up early in the morning to go to farmers' markets that I found to be happening that day online. The first farmer's market I went to was in Old Town Fairfax. I followed the signs that pointed towards where it would be but when I walked around to try to find it I wasn't able to find anything so I headed to the next farmer's market on my list located in Burke. The Burke Farmer's Market had many different vendors from all around Virginia and in neighboring states. I found spring onions and cilantro from a vendor who lives in Oak Grove, Virginia. After looking around for a little more and not finding anything else I went to the next farmer's market that was found to be happening at Springfield Town Center. I found this farmer's market to only have about ten vendors and not anything I was looking for so I left pretty disappointed because I spent a lot of time driving to this particular farmer's market. At this point it was 11:15am so I wanted to hit one more farmer's market in Falls Church. Due to my bad sense of direction, I got to the Falls Church farmer's market fifteen minutes before many of the vendors were closing up. I quickly looked around what each vendor was selling and decided to go for two vendors. I bought about two pounds of sweet potatoes for $2.50 from a person who wintered them from Gainesville, Virginia. A vendor from Berryville, Virginia was selling meat, pasta, and eggs (which were sold out when I got to her station). I asked her about the meats she was selling and the different types of pasta that were made from all natural ingredients off of the farm. I ended up getting almost a pound of sirloin steak and two packages of herb pasta. My total purchase ended up being $24.99. 


Financial Information of Ingredients
Sea Salt: $1.50
Spring Onions and Cilantro: $6.50
Sweet Potatoes: $2.50
Sirloin Steak: $14.99
Two Packages of Herb Pasta: $10.00
Total Amount of All Ingredients: $35.49


Ingredients Used Baked Sweet Potatoes





Baked Sweet Potatoes



Ingredients Used For Cut Sirloin Steak Chunks 



Spring Onions













Sea Salt





Sirloin Steak Taken from the Package



Ingredients Used For Herb Pasta With Pesto





Two Images of Herb Pasta Still in Packaging

                                                                                                  







Green Garlic Pesto Sauce


Project Summary


I learned a lot of things about negative and positive aspects of getting locally grown ingredients for this project. When I was looking for recipes or possible dishes to make from looking at cooking and food websites online, I found that many of the ingredients that I wanted to make for this project were automatically ruled out because I knew I wouldn't be able obtain them around this area. For example, I wanted to make a dish that required olive oil but I know for a fact that olive oil is not produced in Virginia but in Italy or other parts of Europe. Even when it came to finding salt or food that isn't grown during this season like potatoes or mushrooms, the possibility of finding these ingredients are slim as it is not grown at this time and the number of people who have these items may not have it anymore. Lastly, buying locally grown ingredients that I found at farmer's markets I went to were more expensive than the same things you could find at the super market. I can list many other cons of just eating locally grown ingredients but I want to acknowledge that there is value in buying locally grown ingredients. First of all, locally grown ingredients allow you to know where you are getting your ingredients instead of just relying on the information you see on the food container. Secondly, the people that buy locally grown ingredients are able to talk to the farmer and ask questions about how they grew them and if they used any pesticides. Thirdly, many products you buy in the grocery store are not locally grown so local vendors are losing business when they are having to compete with ingredients that are grown and shipped from outside the United States. After working on this project, it has got me interested in going to farmer's markets to buy locally grown ingredients even though they are expensive. I'm the kind of person who likes to know where there food is coming from. So when I was able to talk to vendors about their products it was great to hear it from an actual person rather than leaving me confused with the ingredients listed on the side of the food container. Most importantly, this project has helped me to realize how I take grocery stores for granted. When I need to get potatoes to make a potato salad or mushrooms for a pasta dish I'm making, I can just get these ingredients at the store at any time even if its not grown during the time I buy it. The convenience and the ease I have in obtaining any product I want at anytime compared to the difficulty in obtaining one or more products at farmer's markets and locally grown food markets has helped me to see food shopping in two very different ways. 

Reading Assignment for Project #5 (Share)

Reading Assignment for Project #5- SHARE

Michelle Fuerst "Homemade Cook" website

The "Taste of Place" project was created by Laura Parker who is an established cook in the Bay area where she has worked at both Zuni Cafe and Chez Panisse which are two places that are known as the pioneers of the local and sustainable food movement. Parker's writings have appeared in the Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and the Civil Eats blog. She has been profiled on Chow.com and the California Report as well as the San Francisco Chronicle. On her website, the homemade cook has shown to have been part of a lot of different projects but only five projects are shown under the projects section of the website. The "Eatsy Chef" project was created during the Winter of 2010 of Etsy's in-house lunch program called Eatsy. The project was planned and executed to have a diverse range of seasonally-influenced meals that served family's style for the company's 180 employees. The meals were sustainable sourced, diverse, and deliciously enjoyed by the employees as well as the whole community. The "Yes We Can" project created recipes and had workshops on how to safely preserve fruits and vegetables. The project allowed large numbers of people to participate in communal food production and in its inaugural year, the project canned over a thousand pounds of tomatoes, Blenheim apricot jam and bread & butter pickles. There are about three other projects listed on her website but they all show Fuerst's desire to provide ingredient-driven, responsibly sourced, and traditional handmade cooking methods to provide delicious food to people. The response to her projects and others that she has taken part in has been outstanding and rewarding in allowing her to share food that is healthy to you and the environment. 


Source: http://www.lauraparkerstudio.com/tasteofplace/index.html 

Susanne Cockrell and Ted Purves of Temescal Amity Works

The Temescal Amity Works was a four year project that lasted from July 2004 to January 2007 in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, California. The idea behind this project came to Cockrell and Purves when they wanted this to be a way to localize people's attention and to restructure people's attention to work in a community that many people are not used to. The project was designed to be a social sculpture that got inspiration from historical models of mutual-aid societies, barn-raisings, DIY collectives, and urban communism. The Big Back Yard and Reading Room are two interlocking programs that were created to see how a specific community built relationships through essentially personal and casually tailored economies. The Big Back Yard was constructed as an Italian-American immigrant community that had citrus and fruit trees all around it. To this day, the fruit trees still bear fruit while the culture behind those who planted has faded away. On the website, a picture of the hand-built, steel pushcart that was made to collect surplus fruits and vegetables from neighborhood yards which was given away fresh or re-distributed in form of fruit butters and collective marmalades. Whereas the other room (The Reading Room) which is located at a storefront area just off of Telegraph Avenue made a contextualized ongoing experience of the Big Backyard through casual contact during the hours they were open. In addition to that, a series of public events, film screenings, and a small resource library was found to be provided by The Reading Room. Many artists, historians, and others gathered together to make projects that overlaid themselves onto Temescal Amity Works in a productive way.

The project could have continued for a long time but in January of 2007, the creators made the decision to close the storefront and end the "public" phase of the Temescal Amity Works. After seeing the amount of the time the storefront remained in operation, the two projects captured the identity of service which became more ingrained in the neighborhood's "consciousness". The creators had the plan of having neighbors circulate their backyard surplus among each other but the desired outcome was not found to be the case among the neighbors. The creators hosted a final discussion in the space on the closing weekend. Many who attended the meeting felt like the dialogue and concepts generated through the two projects (storefront and programs) was what got the neighborhood really interested but others felt like the project didn't create a harvesting service for all. While many of these ideas and opinions were conveyed at the meeting, the input the creators received highlighted the core issues of practicing as artists in a community context.  

Source: https://fieldfaring.wordpress.com/temescal-amity-works/

Dying for the Other by Beatriz da Costa

Beatriz da Costa's project "Dying for the Other" was three channel video installation that dealt with the artist's lifelong battle with cancer. This was one her of last works of art before she passed away on December 27th, 2012. While watching da Costa's video, I heard the echoes of self-mutilating artist Bob Flanagan. Also, video clips of mice that were used in cancer research was projected and shown throughout different video segment's of the artist's life as she was going through physical and cognitive therapy after having a brain surgery. This particular project conveyed da Cost'a last days of life in a beautifully bittersweet way. Unfortunately, many of us have been touched by someone who died from cancer or someone who is currently going through it. The battle of any type of cancer is one of the darkest and most personal times in which the emotional toll is heaviest for those closest to the patient. A lot of times, the immense medical traumas are hidden away from the world and usually the pain is internalized by the suffering person. As it is shown in the video where da Coasta is walking with a walker to help her to get around. As she is walking on the street, people star at her and in a way she is exposed to the world and seen as not the same as everyone else. Few people want to be seen in public fighting this battle, losing their hair, fighting for their lives, all the while knowing that this may be a fight they don't win. 

Source: https://vimeo.com/33170755 

Project #4 for Grow Unit

Project #4 for Grow Unit

laying down the cardboard to make the design

another picture from a different angle

and another picture

For the fourth project, as a class we worked on making an herb and vegetable garden. As you can see from the pictures above, the herb garden is still in its early stages. We got cardboard from the big dumpster near the art building and laid it down to cover all the weeds and visually show the preliminary design for the garden. We also we used big branches that we found around the area to clearly show the border of each area. The grass part of the garden is the walking path which will be covered with rocks. I wasn't able to take a picture of the next part of the project but after laying down the cardboard, we used hay to cover the cardboard and water to wet the cardboard and hay. 

Reading for Grow Unit

Food Inc directed by Robert Kenner (2008) 

The movie "Food Inc" was a documentary that looked into America's corporate controlled food industry. Before watching it in Ecoart class, I watched this movie when it was first released. The movie does a great job engaging the viewers and helping us (audience) understand the food industry. The first part of the film examined the industrial production of meat and provided the history behind how the production of meat is currently where it is at. The second part of the film looked at the industrial production of grains and vegetables primarily soy beans and corn by looking at different companies that specialized in this. Furthermore, the industrial production of corn has affected how many of the foods we eat are made. When you look at the food labels of products at the grocery store, you will notice that corn syrup or corn is almost always listed as one of the ingredients. In Food, Inc, the narrator explained that corn is found in skin care, toothpaste, and even salad dressings. With the industrial production of meat, grains, and vegetables explained in the first two parts of the film, the film explains that it is all economically and environmentally unsustainable. The film's third and final part of the film explained the economical and legal power in food labeling regulations of major food companies and the high push for unhealthy food consumption habits of the American people.

Project #3 (Activate Unit)

Project #3 (Activate Unit) 

For the third project, I worked with Kyle and Drew to look at three different coffee places (Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, and 29th Parallel Coffee & Tea) to explain fair trade in coffee. The results and what we found are in the video that is on Kyle's blog. 

Reading Assignment for Project #3 (Activate Unit)

Reading Assignment on "The Yes Men Fix the World"

After watching "The Yes Men Fix the World" movie in class and on my own time, I found the video to be very entertaining and informative on important issues. The movie stars the two men know as the Yes Men (Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno) who use humor and truth to bring media attention to the crimes of their unwilling employers. In the movie, the Yes Men pretend to be representatives from the World Trade Organization, Dow Chemical Corporation, and the Bush administration on TV and at business conferences around the world. The Yes Men seek to expose the dangers of economic policies that place the place the rights of capital before the needs of people and the environment. In the movie, the Yes Men document on the following projects: Dow Chemical and Bhopal, ExxonMobil Vivoleum, Halilburton Survivaball, HUD & post-Katrina public housing, and finally the New York Times Hopeful Future Edition. While five different issues were brought to the world's attention through the film, I will focus on explaining how the Yes Men approached the Dow Chemical and Bhopal disaster. On December 3rd, 2004, which is the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, Andy Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World as "Jude Finisterra", a Dow Chemical spokesman. As the owner of Union Carbide, Dow is the company responsible for the chemical disaster that happened in Bhopal, India on December 3rd, 1984. The chemical disaster in Bhopal immediately killed roughly 3,800 people from the hazardous chemicals and more were killed by the plume from the UCC plant during the next few days. On the fake Dow Chemical website made by the Yes Men, the men stated that the Dow Chemical Company had no intention whatsoever of repairing the damage. After doing that, the Yes Men made the decision to pressure the Dow further so Bichlbaum went on BBC World news to claim that Dow aimed to liquidate Union Carbide and use the resulting $12 billion to pay for medical care, clean up the site, and fund research into the dangers of other Dow products. After the two hour coverage, Dow issued a press release dismissing the statement and the Dow's share price went down 4.24 percent in twenty three minutes. After the original interview was revealed as a hoax, Bichlbaum appeared in a follow-up interview on the UK's Channel 4 news. During the interview, Bichlbaum was asked if he had taken the emotions and feelings of the people of Bhopal when making the hoax. Bichlbaum stated that compared to the chemical disaster incident, the distress he caused the people was minimal to what Dow was responsible for. The Yes Men stated on their website that once the people in Bhopal got over their disappointment that what was said in the original interview wasn't real, the people were pleased about the hoax and believed it helped to bring awareness of the chemical disaster incident.

Rain Project Sketch

Design For the Floating Wetland Rain Project

When I was thinking about a sketch for this project, I thought about using the mascot (Patriot) or the star but as I thought more about the project and my own idea. Ultimately, it led me to create an entirely different style for the floating wetland. Initially, I envisioned the flower for the design and then it evolved into a baroque style flower. I've always been fond of European styles and geometric shapes so I wanted to incorporate those elements into my own design.The flowers, swirls, and geometric shapes all came from designs I came across online, in books, and in magazines.

Floral Ornament in Baroque Style

(http://comps.canstockphoto.com/can-stock-photo_csp14281705.jpg)  

In France, the garden located behind the Palace of Versailles is known for covering nearly 1,976 acres of land. The use of geometric shapes, irregular swirl patterns, and curved lines all played a role in the final sketch of the floating wetland.

                                  Picture of the gardens at the Palace of Versailles


The pictures below show the failed attempts and the progress of how I came to the final design of the floating wetland.

Materials To Construct the Floating Wetland

The materials for the sketch of the structure will be constructed with PVC pipes, a waterproof cable, hooks, and a couple of cinder blocks. The PVC pipes will be lined near the edges of the structure underneath the floating wetland. The pipes will make put together by not only the straight and curved PVC pipes but also ones that can allow the straight/curved pipes to turn in different directions. This will allow the PVC pipes to be able to connect in the end to make the structure that you can see in the image above. Originally, I thought about lining water bottles to make the inner square of the structure but I figured that the water bottles would cause an imbalance in weight distribution. Furthermore, I reasoned that since the floating wetland is planned to be in the Mason pond for about two years. The use of water bottles in the structure would not last in different kinds of weather and the amount of time the floating wetland would be in place. The waterproof cables will be used over rope or other kinds of material due to the durability and longevity of the material. The waterproof cables will be tied to the corners of the wetland where a hook will be mounted onto the corners to ensure that the waterproof cable will stay in the place. To keep the floating wetland in place, the structure will be anchored by four cinder blocks placed at the bottom of the pond that will be tied to the structure with waterproof cables. 

Project Summary

All in all, the potential design for the floating wetland will be used to clean up the Mason pond and also serve to be aesthetically pleasing to everyone who walks by the pond. The floating pond will be placed in the pond for about two years. If I had more time to spend on the design and construction of the floating wetland project, I would probably work on the design a little more and think about how it relates to George Mason University. Besides the colors of GMU, I believe it would be hard for students and other people to see how my design symbolizes the university. The idea of my design came largely from European and Baroque art styles that I've always liked. However, I believe my simple design or some of the elements of my design idea can be used if chosen as the final floating wetland design.