The Social Connections of Dining Experience
re(s)public is an interdisciplinary research collective. As a group we rethink the narratives of space and its related disciplines through critical design, fine arts and architecture. We aim at bridging disciplines and looking beyond the scission of academia, business and art. We believe that in the intersection of these worlds lays the inspiration and the creation of value. We believe in conversation, in learning through making, and we believe in the future. Our work offers space for reflection on art and creative practice through research.
What is the relationship between social connection and design? It is an investigation that is rooted in past investigations of urban design, architecture, and product design. In particular, William H. Whyte’s “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” describes the concept of triangulation, which is described as “that characteristic of a public space that can bring people together, strangers. It’s usually an external stimulus of some kind, could be a physical feature or a happening.” In the case of this research, triangulation is studied in the context of the social scale and in combination, creating an opportunity for the study of conversation.
Conversation for this research is also studied within the context of theorist Theodore Zeldin, who places emphasis on one on one conversation and even goes as far to say “a series of conversations, if carefully planned, could be an alternative to postgraduate training.” While his work explores the power of one on one dinners and a curated “Menu of Conversation,” Zeldin’s emphasis on why we should have deeper conversations serves as an underlying goal in the field of social research. If communication is enhanced, it can only help resolve arguments and turn them into action.
It is because of these two reasons that the case study of dining experience was chosen. In this context, the extraction of data from triangulation, design, affordance, signifiers, cybernetics, and conversation can be explored.
In studying dining experience, a method was chosen that is in combination, a form of qualitative ethnography with participant observation. The methods consist of a series of dining experiences held throughout the year in various locations and contexts and as the iterations of dining experiences continued, a consistent method was shaped over time that consisted of video recordings, surveys and participating in a mapping exercise after the experience came to a close. In doing so, data was able to be analyzed in both the qualitative and quantitative realm.
The analysis of data, resulted in the placement of dinner elements, which ranged from everything from the table itself to the architecture of the room, along a spectrum, relating from those elements of less social connection to more social connection. The placement was then broken down further into characteristics of narrative, affordance, shape, material, social dynamics, and size. It is through this analysis that the placement along the spectrum can be further scrutinized through various lenses.
As more experiences are had, trends are further discovered, defined, and most likely, revised. The goal is to start the creation of a set of guidelines that can help influence social connection within the context of design not just relating to dining experience, but all opportunities of design at the social scale.
To find out more about the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural work that we do at re(s)public collective visit our website under respubliccollective.com. See our projects or get to know our members. We also send out a newsletter on a regural base. You can sign up for it here.
