APD - Week 3 PLAY & Object

Theme

Play & Object

Context

I was thinking of Tetris when doing this project, moreover, seeing the works of Tony Cragg, I was mostly inspired by ‘The Stack’ – 1975. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/cragg-stack-t07428 He packed found things / things that are abandoned into one solid cube.

Method

Playing a Tetris like game with the snack pile that I have at home. Separating my snack pile into three categories: (all unopened) boxes / packs of snacks, little sweets, and sweet drinks packages.

Response

I gathered all the unopened edible snacks that I have at home and proceed to try to play ‘Tetris’ with it. The goal is to stack them as neatly as possible and as high as possible without it falling. As I was doing that, I also had the thought of doing the game with my small non stackable snacks, mostly in this case, are chocolates. Because they are non-stackable, I decided to challenge myself by neatly forming them into a square or as close as possible to a square. And then trying to play more with the idea, this time using the assorted drink powders I have at home.  

Reflection

Considering the only objects that I’m surrounded by most in my apartment are my snacks, as I snack often while I work. I started with that idea and how can I manipulate the amount of snacks that I’ve hoard over the months can play an act in for this week’s theme. I was inspired by my chores to do some clean up, and the only area that I haven’t touched was the kitchen. If it’s not obvious enough from the video, I have a tendency of buying too much stuff, while at the same time taking too long to go through them all alone.

I was trying to figure out how to approach the idea more playfully. When you think about stacking and playing, I think Tetris would be one of the first game that you’ll think of. I tried to play my own version of Tetris, which is trying to stack my snacks as high and as neatly as possible without it falling apart. I used no tapes or anything to hold them down, they stand on their own weight (and the weight of the other snacks on top of them).

After doing that with my large boxes/packs of snacks, I thought might as well do the same with the smaller ones that I have around, the problem is that they are unstackable. I’m still persistent in ‘playing’ with them, so I tried to mold my idea and make them stack on a flat surface. Even though I said stack, it’s more of a, make it as neat and as square and as satisfying as you can. I did the same to my drink powders too.