What's in a place - Group Assignment - Part 3

After interviewing people we got to understand the place better, and therefore we needed to decide a way to make an intervention at the place.

After collecting all the material and proposing an intervention or solution toa problem we had to present in class our project.

The boards we made for the presentation are bellow: (the other group presented our work to the class and we presented theirs. I guess this was a speaking training exercise, as we are an ESL class).

We realized throughout our observations and interviews that people don;t realize the space at the cafeteria and do not have opinions about ir. They usually just go there to eat. We decided to create predicts that visually made people notice the cafeteria space and become involved to it.

I wrote at my sketchbook about the cafeteria:

If I could describe the cafeteria briefly I would say it is passive and convenient.

People stand there, united as members of the New School because it is convenient: either the location (it is inside one of the university buildings), the fact that they have a meal plan, or the fact that there is  fast place to get food in between classes.

Alone or in small groups. the cafeteria represents only a small fraction of time of student's days; a fast stop to break the busy class schedule. No more than an hour, no more than a snack. People hop on and off of the blue, cold space with its clean, basic design. Not special, but extremely acceptable. Again, convenience,

Mostly freshmen students, from all majors and countries. The lure of convenience has the power to make them all eat the same average deli american food in a neutral, almost boring, space. o one loves it or hates it. They do not belong there, nor feel the power or need to change it. It's a fraction of each one's life and time, a half0-the-way space. The cafeteria becomes a neutral environment on student;s life, and play the smallest role on their significant day. The cafeteria is not a place; it is simply a routine.