Bags with brains

The plastic lunch container aboard this Chinese train takes cues from bento (though, like so many things, the original bento were made in China). The packaging on my disposable chopsticks wishes me "Peace" - in your context, consider whether there are standardized messages that inanimate objects tend to wish upon/for users/consumers. The smiling face of "Have a nice day" comes to mind in an American context. What if instead of a generic message, the abundance of disposable objects and containers given to consumers by various service providers could share more useful/relevant information?

Taken a step further, consider the implications of the near future when supercheap sensors have made their way into (what were once considered, in more resource-rich contexts, "disposable") containers and bags, enabling a thick new mass of data - from an aural/visual confirmation upon opening your disposable chopsticks that they are in fact sanitized, to your bento updating you as to the progress towards daily dietary intakes you have satisfied as you actively consume (or choose not to consume) its contents. As certain contexts have come around to charging for limited-use plastic grocery bags now (or, in some cases, stopping giving them out entirely), perhaps this will herald a redefinition of value. As more food for thought, ponder what you would feel comfortable with your grocery bag "knowing" and/or publicly sharing about you. Perhaps the broadcasting of your relative share of junk food/fruits and vegetables (by mass or value - its choice) compared to other shoppers being checked out at the same time (the stuff of a Bloombergian nudge-fantasy), to continuously updating you as you load it regarding how near it is to its recommended weight limit. 

Of course, there's always the myriad of "non-designed uses" to consider as well. This 7-11 bag, complete with its own (perhaps unintentionally cheeky and vapid) statement of "Always open!", is a member of the colorful variety of sizes and materials of containers in a Taibei pedestrian underpass (an informal shelter for the city's homeless). For each distinct culture, context, and user, the spectrum of what passes for vital, useful, useless, and harmful information varies widely.

Convenience fish

This (contextually defined) convenience store has branched out from the usual staples of cigarettes, cold beverages, and snacks to include a limited selection of fish as well, made possible by a plastic Little Sheep (小样子) tub and an oxygen machine. When the definition of “fresh” means “still alive”, and customers won’t settle for anything less, consider this a response/accommodation in the form of a creative goods display solution. 

(See also this Danwei post on local Chinese takes on convenience stores while pondering the contextually specific nature of "convenience")

Midnight barbecue spatial dynamics

On a cold winter night's walk through Wanyuan, a small city in mountainous northeast Sichuan, one will encounter groups of tents set up in the city's narrower streets. Alleys burst into color following the de facto relaxation of rules that forbid street-based structures and enterprises as those enforcing said rules knock off work for the evening.

Tents are crafted from "snake skin" (蛇皮) canvas, the material of choice for low-cost bags, construction site dust screens, and improvised shelters shelters across China. Positioned adjacent to the establishments that manage them, the barbecue restaurants place their cooking apparatuses out front of the tents to make food delivery more convenient (and also "because the smells make people want to eat barbecue" confides one chef). Coal or electric stoves are placed in the center of each tent, warming the already-served trays of barbecued food while simultaneously generating warmth for the diners seated inside.

 Consider what happens in your local context when the “rules of the street” are relaxed, and who makes claims to a given street’s space (and using what  means/power). What would a street in its “unregulated/”natural” form resemble across the different seasons of your context, and why? How would the spatial breakdown between goods / services / recreation / “miscellaneous” appear?

Priorities

In an afternoon downfall, this caramel-covered crab-apple vendor stands under a tree nearby a pedestrian bridge. Like most street vendors, she wears her cash register slung in front of her. While she could have opted to design a goods display method that sheltered herself, it is unlikely that she would have been able to create one that adequately sheltered both herself and her inventory simultaneously and still be easily commuted with aboard buses and carried in a hurry if chengguan (城关 "sidewalk police" in charge of making sure no sidewalk-based trade is occurring) appear. Hence, she has prioritized the dryness of inventory over that of herself. Speed and compactness are valued over personal comfort when one is selling on the street.

When your means of financial support is also your means of physical support. When what allows you to provide shelter to your family must also shelter you.

Audible. Edible.

When meals are spoken of as having a rhythm, it usually isn't audible. In a Lanzhou-style noodle shop, the symphony of preparation is audible across the street, with the cadence and timbre of dough against metal board varying based upon the thickness and quantity of noodles a customer has ordered. 

Of the five senses, sound is the one least associated with food. What would an institution based upon turning this notion on its head look like?

Approaching edible

The additional labor cost paid for something to be made simpler to consume -  "opened" in this case. 

Despite considerable effort, still found it hard to actually "open" this little bugger - the subjective definitions of "ready to eat" (i.e. norms around bones and their removal).

Consider the ease unopened walnuts are found in your local context compared with the value/labor added forms (opened, chopped, etc.), and what that says about expectations around food and cost consciousness of consumers in your local context.

Rice candy (hi)story

This vendor cooks up blocks of rice candy in his home nearby, packs them into his carry-basket, and brings them down to this mini-park near a busy bus stop to patiently perform the work of breaking the larger blocks of candy into bite-size pieces and placing them into small plastic bags. The tool he uses to break apart the candy - picture a metal shoehorn that has been bent in the middle - also serves as "acoustic advertising": the sound of his hammer upon the metal implement notifies passersby of his presence.

Each bag of candy is one kuai, around US $0.16. He is 75 years old this year, and has been making rice-candy for the past 25 years. He offers up a piece for me to taste. "Just roll it around in your mouth, though, don't try to chew it or you'll end up like me!" he warns, revealing a gap-filled smile.

For the epicurious, imagine a "White Rabbit" - only with sesame seeds. The humble White Rabbit Milk Candy, by the way, has (I think) a fascinating history and could represent one aspect of China's modernization; from its humble "shanzhai" beginnings as "ABC Mickey Mouse Sweets", to their shining moment as a gift to visiting Tricky Dick, rising to become (arguably) the most popular candy in the world, to accusations of melamine contamination and the subsequent shift to using milk from New Zealand for production. The rabbit tale continues.

Hung-kin

In the storefront of this shop specializing in afterlife currency (what one burns for one's deceased family members who will then receive the dividend in the afterlife) all eye-level, sunlit space is valuable, and devoted to either goods display or utility storage.

The owner's solution for drying his pumpkin seeds therefore involves some unlikely elements: a lid of a shoebox, some plastic string, a length of dried bamboo, and, to make the system function smoothly, a laundry-hanging pole.

Contained Expectations

Something about the white plastic container displayed here in trio makes me (20-something American male) think "laundry detergent" more than its actual contents (yogurt). This could have to do with the anticipated consumption behavior for this yogurt's consumers - a volume and frequency such that equipping its container with an easy-to-pour handle is a given.

It also says something about my expecations for how I do and do not expect yogurt to be packaged, and, by extension, consumed. Sans proper cues (yogurt-y neighbors, refrigeration section), what might you take this container to contain?

Flame & Fluorescence

Choosing whether to light one's business by candle or fluorescent tube lamp is an important decision for vendors. For fluorescent lighting, if one is unable to "borrow" (or rent, as is usually the case) grid access from an adjacent building, then one  must contribute for a share of the fuel and maintenance costs of a communally-run generator.

While candles lack lumens compared to a tube lamp, they make up for it in added functionality by repelling flies. This is why you will notice several meat vendors in these pictures using both candles and tube lamps for their stall's lighting. As most of these vendors do not live nearby, there is also the ease of carrying to consider: fluorescent tube lamps far are less portable and more fragile than candles.