Form Giving:
Rocking Spoons
- Bringing the curves and silhouette of the original pitcher into the cup and spoon
- Necessary to have a space to hold the spoon in the cup to create a rattling noise
Specifying Concept:
Worldbuilding and Scenario:
In 2050, finding both the time and transportation to hang out with friends is particularly difficult. Advances in technology have led to increased work — the modern young workforce is constantly working and trying to one-up or keep up with each other. Aside from how work has increasingly dominated the average person’s time, the symptoms of the global climate crisis have started to physically manifest in everyday life. People are increasingly moving inland as the edges of continents have started eroding and coastal cities are starting to spend more and more time in flooded states, confining people to their high-rise buildings for longer periods. Public transit is not able to evolve fast enough to serve people well. Those with amphibious vehicles are able to get around shallow floods, but those who have the money for amphibious vehicles also likely had the money to move inland before the waterline started to creep into coastal cities.
Tiffania is a young adult living in New York City, having spent the last handful of years post grad working for an accounting firm and working to establish herself. Due to the change in work culture demanding more hours from workers, especially young workers just entering the workforce, she has not been able to spend much time with her family and friends. She has put in her time, though, and she and her peers are just starting to have more space in their schedules to make plans to catch up.
Since the climate crisis is still ongoing, chronic flooding has forced Tiffania to stay inside her apartment complex and rely on the e-commerce and delivery sector to get almost everything brought to her, since they are the only ones with the technology to have reliable transportation. However, Tiffania is determined to meet with her friends and spend time with them — even if it’s not in person.
Main Points:
- Tiffania’s work schedule has just started to free up, and she’s excited to catch up with her friends who she last saw during university.
- Due to damaged and inconsistent infrastructure in New York City, Tiffania (and her peers) do not have the ability to travel or commute easily.
Idea population:
Initial Ideation:
Design Guide:
- Is milk relevant in 2050? Perhaps by a small subset in America, but definitely not as popular.
- What would a non-dairy milk alternative milk jug/creamer look like? What materials would it be made of? (I would like to stay with glass, although it is likely that people are more interested in materials that appear eco-friendly in both physical appearance, perceived manufacturing process, and recycle-ability and/or biodegradability)
- How to bring the floral motif of the current object into the object of 2050?
- Physical form factor, graphic surface prints, etc?
- Currently in a wave of minimalist products — how to design a high-end minimalist product? (Form, material, perceived quality or desirability of these factors?)
- 3D printed glass? Quick customization and changes in production
- Move from luxury item to ubiquitous essential
Developing a Narrative/Scenario:
- Food and beverage as a socializing tool/lubricant
- Milk originally as something that literally added value to coffee or tea
- Then to abstract value as a community and socializing over food
- What is added to the conversation/scenario by the object?
- Who: Friends, both distant and close
- Why: Social lubricant, having food gives both your hands something to do, and an excuse for pauses within conversation
- When: 2050, recreational/free/social time
- Where: In a personal space, perhaps a kitchen, dining room, or living room, depending on level of formality
- What: Snack/topping vessels? Matching dining ware to create sense of connection that is lost when not passing vessel(s) back and forth
Research:
Object Information:
(Possibly) By: McKee and Brothers (American c. 1834–1951)
Date: c. 1860
Medium: glass
Classification: containers
Dimensions: 5 x 5 ⅜ x 3 ½ in.
Credit: Gift of Peter Tillou in Memory of Senator John Heinz
History of Milk In America:
- Pilgrims of Plymouth died from malnutrition, and relied on four cows brought from London to recover from chronic malnutrition. (1620–1626)
- Meadows were fairly popular up until the mid 1800s, with communal urban meadows being recorded until around 1850. Increase in population meant the spaces were utilized for other infrastructure.
- Increase of urban milk demand; poverty, poor sanitation, inadequate nutrition, and long shifts rendered many urban women unable to breastfeed their children.
- Small countryside dairies did not produce enough milk, and most were not able to reliably transport milk quickly or safely to avoid contamination or spoilage.
- Enter grain distillery milk! Hot waste/distillery slop was feed directly to cows, which introduced a cheap method of producing milk. (Swill milk system, established 1840)
- Quantity over quality, some distillery dairymen added plaster of Paris to lessen the blue hue; swill milk accounted for ¾ths of all milk sales in NYC
- Swill milk led to infant mortality deaths (diarrhea and tuberculosis). Although the milk itself might not have been that bad, the cows were deeply unhealthy, milking conditions were filthy, milkers were often dirty or sick, and equipment was rarely sanitized.
- Distillery diaries lasted well into the 1900s, NYC’s last closed in 1930.
- Post WW2, dairy farms shifted towards the modern iteration, with pasteurization to clean milk and highly mechanized operations.
STEEPV Analysis:
Social
- Considering the 1860s date, the quality of production of milk at the time, and the provenance of the piece, I would place this object as a luxury item in a wealthy household.
- The milk jug was likely only used in upper-class families who had the expensive to engage in luxuries like coffee and tea, and was likely used as a part of a set of conversation facilitation through tea time and offers of coffee.
Technological:
- Since the jug is extremely consistent in craft and was (likely) produced by a glass manufacturer, I would assume this jug was cast into a steel mold. If the date of the jug is incorrect, it could also potentially be made through the “press-and-blow” method.
- Most methods of glass production were developed in the States during the 1800s, so there is potential for the jug to be made of multiple different types of construction and/or experimentation.
Economical:
- Running on the tail end of the (first) Industrial Revolution, both the McKee Glass firms were doing well (although competing a bit!) Since both glass firms co-existed from 1854 through 1908, and both produced home goods, (although S. McKee Glass was more focused on industrial goods and McKee Glass Company was more focused on daily goods) there is a chance that we will never actually trace the true origins of the piece. (IT is likely McKee Glass Company though).
- McKee Glass(in all forms) did well for itself and was steadily expanding until its acquisition by Thatcher Glass in 1951, and some of its remaining property in Jeanette was purchased in 1961 and ran until 1983.
Environmental:
- At the time, there were little concerns about environmentality, although I would like to note that though glass is one of the more easily recycled materials, it is a bit unsustainable because it requires certain contents within the sand used to produce it that only exist in limited quantities at the moment.
Political:
- Although glass was not subject to much political tumult (its roles within industrial production was relatively small as compared to steel and oil), milk was in the midst of political and social tumult due to the issues surrounding Swill Milk (see history research above).
Values:
- Between the issues of Swill Milk and the increasing popularity of Raw Milk and the slow crawl towards pasteurization, milk was deeply involved with the household of most if not all Americans of the mid-1800s. Since this was on the tail end of the industrial revolution, America had yet to move towards the movement for 8 hour workdays.
