Hej. I’m Mathilda from China. I’m 23. I am currently studying in the third year in Uni, majoring in Advertising Design, and taking an internship in a Swedish creative agency at the same time. Being a little bit different from other design fields, advertising has shown a more direct relation to the social and cultural phenomenon. And it’s also what I’m interested in. I have been observing the way food in different countries being cooked and served in daily life, which is closely related to the culture. And the dining culture is also an interesting point to dig into, although I’m not sure if it’s relevant to our project. Anyway, I’m glad to be on board. And hope I can add a little bit of a new angle to the team.

Hi, I am Vanessa from PolyU Hong Kong. I am 20 and studying Year 3 of Product Design. I really enjoy having milk tea from different countries, but of course, my favourite is Hong Kong styled milk tea which is having a strong tea taste, it is a nice refreshment in the morning! Bubble tea is also nice but sometimes it is too sweet for me(depends on the shop)

Sometimes I cook lunch by myself, while I found that most of my family members tend to have leftover of yesterday’s dinner or having instant noodles (or other frozen food) which is quite unhealthy, but the benefit of having these food as lunch is they could be really quickly prepared and saved some time. Personally I like cooking Japanese styled beef rice because it is quite tasty and really quick to do, what do you guys like to have for meals?

I would like to explore more kinds of food in different places, and I am looking forward to meet you guys in the course!

Hi! I am Charlie from China. I am 23. I am currently studying in the final year, Product Design Program, Hong Kong PolyU. I like to spend time exploring the grocery store, buying ingredients, and cooking food for myself or to share with my friends. I love to explore different types of food/ingredients and I’m interested in the cultural meaning behind it. Looking forward to meeting everyone online and hope we will have fun working together!

My name is Michael, I am 34 years old, I am a Product Designer from Australia. I am based in Hong Kong and studying a MDES (Design Strategies) in PolyU. 

I have a personal interest in Hydroponics and Sustainable food culture in cities. Below is a short video introducing myself and design practice. 

Looking forward to collaborating 🙂

MichaelOBrienDesign.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu3BobvwJd0&feature=youtu.be

Hey there everyone! 🙂 

My name is Janek, i’m 28 years old, born and raised in Cologne. I’m in the 9th semester at KISD right now. Most of my works contain ecological, sustainable and social focus. I’m in love with culture and by time it drives me crazy seeing how this planet loses it’s roots, it’s cultural heritages and diversity over e.g. industrial and economic growth. I see design as a way to keep this heritage, adapt it. You can say i’m quite “oldschool”, which doesn’t mean i’m not interested in new achievements or possibilities, but i’m always thinking about the costs and losses it takes concerning our global cultural diversity, and of course, our roots, mother nature and its finite resources. So i rather stick to real nature and what our eco-system is giving us than to computers or machines and the human-made history which is implemented to us as “nature”. 

Due to my projects, i actually did quite a lot of research and experiences on food-topics over the last years. 2018 i did a project facing urban gardening and the consequences of industrial food production, including a trip to Cuba. I learned a lot about their urban gardening culture and had the feeling i tasted tomatoes and cucumbers for the first time in my life 😀 So unbelievable tasty when produced organic and without pesticides! Check it out here

I connected with local urban gardeners and got into the “slow-food” topic. 2019 i adapt this knowledge and worked on an “environment-ID” for kids, containing topics like food-miles and regional & organic growing, but also packaging and the emerging plastic-waste, re-use this trash and use for example the school yard as a space to grow goods. I think it’s very important to teach and reach! the upcoming generations on these topics. Unfortunately i did it in german, but you can check it out anyways if you like 🙂  Click me

I also joined the project “we are what we eat” in 2018 – coming up with a zine about “food & medicine”. The question i asked myself was:

Is there a way to resolve the conflict between health, culture and environmental conservation through a new interpretation of producing alternatives?

Main aspect of this zine was the fact that more and more animals facing extinction due to the “medical myths” all around their body and organ parts. It also has a lot to do with cultural beliefs and heritages. So i presented 2 designers, poineering in their fields of food design and try to safe nature through their upcoming and innovative alternatives. Check it out!

All in all i really don’t like the financial exploitation of this life-essential sector. Well, and even though I did a lot of works by now facing alternatives to this, unfortunately i don’t have an answer yet. Speaking on food crisis, everyday thousands of people starving even though we actually have enough food for every human being on this planet, and so on… I don’t really have expectations as i am totally unaware about where this project will lead us all 🙂 But i’m totally curious and full of anticipation regarding the exchange with PolyU and all of your views and thoughts on this emerging, huge global topic and issue we’re facing right now. 

Oh and here you SEE me reading all this again, quite poor via selfie-camera 😀 

Best and see y’all soon <3