Tofu is a VR interactive installation that presents the consumption experience of convenience stores and street food in the city in a surreal way. It reflects consumers’ different relationships with food and the disappearing local marketplace culture behind this confrontation.
Nianqi Zhang
https://vimeo.com/412757973
Description
Tofu, an affordable ingredient with hundreds of shapes and cooking methods, is a common ingredient in China from ancient times and shows the evolvements in our eating habits. The virtual reality installation Tofu is showing these changes in a surreal way: The first chapter provides a scene of how young workers buy food in a convenience store. Players will find themselves getting off work in a city, entering a convenience store, and choosing different tofu products with appearing packages and marketing strategies. The second chapter is about the decreasing local food marketplace. The convenience store suddenly collapsed into soybeans, exposing players to a street food carnival where chili, fried tofu and other street food are wildly floating in the city. The third chapter shows how tofu is made in rural villages. The player will see villagers making the simplest tofu. In each chapter, players can grab and eat different forms of tofu, unlocking the voice narratives.
The piece is aiming to bring viewers a reflection on the changes in our consumption culture: In today's rapid urbanization, unified brands reconstruct our local life with their convenience and brand images. The market is promoting the disappearance of our neighborhood culture. City residents are enjoying the consumption of grand stories and values, but have little interest in getting to know the history of the street we live in, which is actually harmful to the diversity of our cities.
IMA/ITP New York
ITPG-GT.2102.00003
Thesis
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