Food Truck Roundup

Maslow's hierarchy of needs states that in order to feel fulfilled as a human being, one must first satisfy physiological needs, then find safety, then actualize oneself within a social setting, and then top off their satisfaction with esteem and self-actualization. We chose to focus on the creator of the food truck roundup because we believe in the importance of communion in achieving the third level of Maslow's pyramid. The sharing of meals is such a vital aspect of humanity and community because it supports the idea that human beings should care for one another and ensure that each person survives not just physically, but mentally and emotionally and spiritually. Events such as the food truck roundup serve as a shared experience that helps individuals orient themselves in their social environment.

For example, Claire experienced something unexpected as she worked to film different aspects of the roundup. She was given free food and told to relax and enjoy the people around her. She was sent to a seat by one of the fires and instead of eating alone and returning to work, found herself included with the group. People became truly invested with how she was doing and wanted her to know how they were doing. She held pets and took group photos and truly felt a part of this group of perfect strangers that felt like family.

In Arlene Goldbard's essay, she says, "Every year more and more artists work in community cultural development, in participatory projects in which artists collaborate with others to express concerns and aspirations, recovering histories, beautifying communities, teaching, expressing cultural creativity as a universal birthright and a bottomless source of resilience." The food truck roundup is one of these participatory projects that seeks to inspire and uplift the community. The strong sense of community present in this event is due to the man who created it. Anders Taylor grew up with food truck roundups in California, and, upon moving to Utah, missed the sense of community they brought when found there was no such thing. He has worked hard to foster this community spirit and avoid a competitive atmosphere.

What we found special about the food truck roundup was the inclusive nature of its setup. The trucks were arranged in a circle pointing inwards, the fires had chairs encircled around them, and the stage was at the forefront to invite all to enjoy the entertainment. Because of these circles, the participants were welcomed to enjoy the company of others and relish in the warmth of community. The communion we can share at the food truck roundup gives us a sense of social belonging here in Provo.

Game for Change

http://www.philome.la/CaitStratton/under-pressure


A problem I see in our society today is the result of conflicting opinions on motherhood. It seems that no how you choose to parent, someone is adamant you are running your children’s lives. Often time this judgment comes from other mothers on the blogosphere. There are a few terms for this such as ‘Mom vs. Mom’ and ‘The Mommy Wars’.
I am not a mother, but as someone who has a mother and the potential to become a mother there are aspects of this that bother me. The fact that so much of this judgment comes from other moms is, to me, a shame. Instead of supporting each other in what is probably one of the hardest jobs, people are attacking each other’s style of parenting.  One issue in particular resonates with me. Some people say a mother cannot work outside the home without neglecting her children. Others, who are working moms, push back saying it is working for them.
My mother is a woman with more than one story, a concept explored by the TED talk we viewed. She is mother, a wife, a teacher, and a working mom since I was 12 years old. Previously a stay at home mom, when my father was laid off she went back to teaching speech therapy at a local elementary school. After this she never again was without a job. It wasn’t that added income, my father found an excellent job not long after; it was that she loved the challenge and helping children. While she was originally worried about the change, it worked for our family.
In this game I focused on showing the issue through a mother who had seen both sides. Having no experience as a mother I drew from my own mother’s experience and some of the stories expressed online. You begin as a stay at home mom heavily involved with her son’s school life with a social circle of similarly occupied moms and end as a working mother dealing with a new set of challenges. I wanted to giver her more than one story and show her emotional conflict over how to move through this transition.  Problems such as judgment from other moms, pressure to put work first, and the guilt over leaving your children with another person are addressed. There are also issues such as the conflicting emotions of enjoying being at work and missing your children.
My aim was to show both sides of the story, with maybe a leaning towards the sympathy for working moms as it provides a basis for crafting a set of choices to incorporate in a game. I also wanted to show some of the judgment stay at home mothers receive by giving them one story and portraying them in a negative light. In this way I hoped to show how both sides are often perceived and help people understand that we should be supporting each other in our individual family choices and not tearing each other down.


Sources

http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/family/features/n_7837/index3.html

http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/parenting-roles/value-of-stay-at-home-moms/the-value-of-stay-at-home-moms

http://drphil.com/articles/article/284

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/welcome-to-overwhelmia-the-modern-day-madness-of-working-mothers/2014/03/13/1dd71bc8-aabf-11e3-98f6-8e3c562f9996_story.html

World Building

      Our main idea was to look at a world that shines a spotlight on the everyday, average person. In a Disney movie, both a street rat like Aladdin and a princess like Jasmine get equal time to sing and dance their way through life. Everyone is the star of his or her own story. This is a well-known idea and a famous way of looking at life. William Shakespeare said that “all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.”  The world that we have created makes this a reality. In our society everyone shines through their ability to sing and dance about their lives. This has some unfortunate drawbacks however. If everyone is a star than who is there to fulfill the supporting cast and backup singing? The truth is that we are all the supporting cast to those around us. We are the harmony to each other’s lives and others are the support for us. So in this vein, we have created a world in which spontaneous musical numbers are performed daily and those who shine brightest are the most talented performers.
     Even a society based on spontaneous musical numbers needs infrastructure. Musical numbers are an addition to their everyday lives which will inform their performances. But, since jobs must continue to be completed, the musical numbers will in turn influence how they perform those jobs. For example, a street sweeper might break out into a Stomp number as he cleans the roads. This was in part why we chose newspaper as a medium. It is a media form consumed by the masses which allowed us to represent diverse elements of society. We wanted to show as many aspects of our proposed society as possible. This included the singing woodland creature advertisement, the need for a confetti blower operator, and even the report on a baseball game. All these articles were influenced by the fact that musical numbers dominate every individual’s life. Even the court cases revolve around the musical aspects of life. With this in mind the newspaper's formatting is inspired by musicals. The title font is large and cartoony, and the fonts themselves differ as we wanted it to have a whimsical, creative look.  
       The reading described the process of designing as an “exploration” in which the imagination is “link(ed)...to its material form.” We experienced this exact process in the construction of our world. An interesting part of that was making sure that we were all “grab(bing) hold” onto the same vision. At one point we had to decide whether this world would be Musical centered or Disney centered. We determined that because we wanted to explore the idea of a musically saturated world, that this would be our focus. From this point, our alignment actually led to a deeper exploration that yielded more physical material forms. Therefore, this homogeneity of vision was an important principle in our design, and essential to holding a concept as big as a designed world together.