Banana leaf - 

Giacomo Pala - Università di Bologna

BRIEF

தென் இந்தியாவிலுள்ள வாழைப்பழ இலையில் உணவு சாப்பிடுவதின் பாரம்பரிய முறையை மறுவரிக்க வேண்டும். சாதாரண வாழைப்பழ இலையின் வாசிப்பு அனுகூலமாக பொருத்தப்பட்ட உணவு அனுபவத்தை மேம்படுத்த வாழைப்பழ இலையின் கட்டமையை மறுவரிக்க வேண்டும். மேலும், கழிக்கும் அனுபவத்தை அதிகரிக்க வாழைப்பழ இலையின் கட்டமையை மாற்ற வேண்டும் மற்றும் பழைய உணவுகளை விட்டுவிட எளிய நீக்கமும் கண்டுபிடித்து கொள்ள வேண்டும். கட்டமை மாற்றங்கள் குறைவாக இருக்க வேண்டும், பொருத்தமாக இருக்க வேண்டும் மற்றும் கட்டுப்படுத்துவதற்கு நேரம் குறைவாக இருக்க வேண்டும்.

Persona profile

Raul's needs

Feedbacks

• Quite an impressive persona! Very believable but there seems to be a few loopholes and errors caused by chatGPT.

• "Raul" is not an Indian name. There's "Rahul" but not "Raul", one of India's most common names. Quite close though!

• No specificity in the "large city". Which large city in India?

• It is mentioned as a "rice dish," but not just one dish is served on the banana leaf. In fact, more than 10 dishes are served on the leaf all at once, every time. I was expecting detailed info on the types of dishes as well, which anchors the brief a lot!

• "Preparing banana leaves" is not tedious, unlike how it is framed here. Banana leaves are used in occasions of large crowds because it's one-time use, have no hassle of doing the dishes, are a healthier option, and are environmentally friendly. In rural areas, people grow these leaves in their backyards but it's not the same in cities.

• The persona is lacking information specific to the eating experience with the banana leaf and has no details about the problem area of the brief, which is disposal without leakage, and less stressful eating. I want to see how chatGPT perceives "stressful eating" in this context!

• In a city context, yes, there is a waste of these leaves but in a rural context, these leaves are fed to the cattle. 

• The context of the problem area would resolve challenges here. Are we re-designing for a rural context or an urban context?

• Raul's need to "Simplify the process of preparing and consuming the dish" is not required as the brief was to re-design the banana leaf and not the food dishes served on the leaf. This brings me to a question. By "Dish", do you mean the food dish like rice or the vessel dish like a plate, bowl, or banana leaf?

• "Reducing waste" is an interesting challenge. I'm curious to see how it's solved in an urban context.

Image feedback

• I'm curious to know what the prompt was for these images because if the prompt had "banana leaf" in it, the plates being used in the image are completely wrong.

• Did you mention that these people are supposed to be eating with their hands or just India in general? It's cool to see how it has generated people using their hands to eat which is very culturally specific to India although the food on the plate isn't quite clear :(

• The environment and weather can be perceived as "cold and foggy" looking at the sweaters being worn and the misty background which is interesting because India is a tropical country and only very few locations have this climate (hilly regions, which also seems to be the case in the image). So, what influenced this environment and weather?

Great Job! :)

Concept

Feedbacks

Hi Giacomo! I just wanted to write down the pointers I mentioned during the review so it is easier for you to refine the concept!

• Incorporating the bamboo plate underneath is smart. Making it more flat like a plate with ridges in the circumference would be more stable than the almost bowl-like concept above. 

• Maybe these bamboo plates could have some etching in them with respect to the occasion it was used on and it's a souvenir! It's a tradition in south India to offer return gifts to guests so this could be a nice gift and memory.

• Think about how we could manipulate the banana leaf itself to make it leakproof. The folding I see in the 5th image is interesting. changing the form of the flat leaf from 2D to 3D is smart, produces less waste and is eco-friendly.

• I would love to see some context scenarios where this concept is being put to use. It is usually in a traditional family gathering where all guests are made to sit on the floor with the leaf in front of them and the 10 dishes on it. The dishes really define the product here and looking forward to seeing how mid-journey interprets South Indian dishes. (especially Rasam!)

Great job!

Notes and reflections

Sviluppo del concept a partire dai consigli e i suggerimenti di Monica. Il prodotto concepito da midjourney è strutturalmente coerente in entrambe le versioni, oltre che avere forme gradevoli. Si nota una difficoltà per l'I.A. di rielaborare il concetto di un piatto di riso consumato sopra ad una foglia di banano. Ulteriore difficoltà di comprensione da parte dell'intelligenza artificiale risiede probabilmente nel fatto che esiste un ulteriore layer di informazioni: si tratta infatti dello sviluppo di un supporto per facilitare il consumo di piatti indiani tradizionali sulla foglia di banana. 

Contestualizzazione / Consumo piatti tradizionali indiani

Hunted bias / Conclusion

I think the workshop has been quite fascinating from a variety of angles. First and foremost, it has helped me better understand how artificial intelligence works, particularly language models and text-to-image creation models. I believe that these technologies will soon be used by designers as tools to speed up and improve the quality of their work.

In addition to acting as an interpreter of desired outputs to provide acceptable inputs, the function of the designer could change to that of a mediator who is knowledgeable about these technologies and understands the best context for their use. It was also fascinating to understand how algorithms, as systems created by humans, are in fact affected in their results by the cognitive biases of their developers or the data used to train them. 

From the standpoint of the design process, I think artificial intelligence may offer assistance with both technical and esthetic issues. However, I firmly believe that at this time, the presence of a designer serving as a filter in the created information is still required. Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a very helpful tool for quickly creating text, photos, and other information, but when it comes to the quality of the output, it is clear that further technological development is needed before complete design processes can be left in the hands of AI.

In addition to acting as an interpreter of desired outputs to provide acceptable inputs, the function of the designer could change to that of a mediator who is knowledgeable about these technologies and understands the best context for their use. It was also fascinating to understand how algorithms, as human-designed systems, are really affected by the training data or the developers' cognitive biases in terms of how they perform.