I think I can eat my project
Introduction/Experiment I
When I first heard the details to the assignment titled "Invent your own writing technology," I remember thinking that this would be a very easy project. It was not as easy as initially thought, although challenging and creative for sure, thanks to the brainstorming, and trial and error used to make a finished product. My initial idea was to create words in freshly fallen snow with a stick, and although this seemed simple enough, I soon found out that this writing technology had a few glitches involved with it. The day was cold and the job was messy as the snow was not dense enough to allow letters and words to form properly. I relaized that there would be little if any permanence to writing words into freshly fallen snow, as there is always the chance of people walking on top of my newly forged letters, or when the temperature increases, the snow along with the words will melt away. I quickly realized that snow was not the medium of choice to complete my project. I did not want to have to bother with the cold again but that is OK I thought to myself, I still have more than a week to complete my new writing technology.
Experiment II
A week later and two days before the project was due, I was finally able to work on this project again, and I was ready to create a writing technology that I had thrown around in my head for a week now. This second idea seemed brilliantly clever as I was to take a small log, strip the bark off of it, and write some words on the smooth surface of the wood, using a combination of dirt and water as a basic form of paint. The inspiration for this project cam efrom a program I had previously watched concerning prehistoric cave painters, and how the art was created by using nothing more than their hands as a tool used to transcribe the pictures onto earthen walls, along with a special type of paint consisting of dirt, clay, blood, and plant pigments. If it worked for the ancients i thought, it would work for me, and again I began to experiment.
Collecting dirt outside of my house for the homemade finger paint took longer than expected, as the ground was hard as a rock which made it difficult to extract the dirt which would help create the paint. It took nearly 15 minutes to collect a sample of dirt the size of a cool�whip container, and when this frozen dirt was mixed with water, it became apparent that this was not finger paint like the ancients created to last thousands of years. The mixture was very dark, yet upon drying, the words became transparent. The words crumbled off the paper at the slightest touch and I soon realized that this would take a lot more work and time to make a fully-functioning finished project. I could mix some blood or plant pigment into the mixture just as prehistoric man did, but that did not seem very inviting at that point in time, as I was not able to make the two hour drive back to my parent�s house as planned, to get the wood needed for the project. It did not seem to matter much anyway at this point as my homemade finger paint would be even less likely to stick to wood, if it could not even adhere properly to the paper. At approximately 9:30 pm Sunday night, I gave up on the finger painting idea. With less than 48 hours left until the project was due, I did not have many options to choose from due to serious time constraints. Desperation/Inspiration
Monday came and went, with no time to work on my next idea for the project. Tuesday morning, desperation started to kick in as I had to create a writing technology and fast before class began. But how in the heck was I going to create a writing technology and write a report on it with less than six hours before class started? My head was beginning to pulsate with tension of not completing this project, but luckily my girlfriend had the television on and was watching a food network show that was creating the world�s greatest desserts. Thanks to this program, my desperation turned into inspiration as a pastry chef from Belgium created little animal figures out of strawberries, and various other fruits, and placed them onto a cake. The finished product looked fantastic and I decided that food would become the medium in which to complete my project. I had to go to the supermarket anyways that day, and I planned on having steak fajitas for dinner. I could kill two birds with one stone and purchase the ingredients for my project, as well as for dinner, and still have time to make both before class at 7pm.
While in the supermarket picking up the tortillas, sour cream, steak, cheese, and vegetables, it occurred to me that I had the perfect recipe for writing success in my shopping basket already. The fajitas would be the blank canvas on which to display the letters. The letters would be formed out carrots, cut down into toothpick sized pieces, and the sour cream could be used to glue the carrot pieces down onto the fajita shell. Yes it was brilliantly simple, and yes it was going to be a delicious dinner, but time was running out and I drove back to my apartment to start the dinner project.
Preparation
Carrots were the first and most crucial part of my �new� writing technology as they form differing letters of the alphabet to form a word. I had to cut each carrot down into small toothpick sized pieces, in order to form shapes and letters that resembled words. This turned out to be a delicate and time consuming task when compared to writing with a pencil or typing words onto a computer screen. Arranging pieces of carrot into meaningful words is more of an art form than writing, and requires a bit of time and patience. I relied on a knife to cut the carrots into differing shapes and sizes, but limited the knife to the only modern utensil needed to help complete the project.
Next I took a tortilla shell and placed it on a plate so I could display the carrot letters onto it. From prior experience, I purchased non-fat sour cream with the project in mind as non-fat sour cream is close in consistency to glue or caulk and then I proceeded to spread the cream onto the tortilla, covering it in full. As mentioned before, the most critical part of the project is shaping carrot sticks into meaningful words. It requires a fair amount of agility and patience to form carrot sticks into letters and words. The finished product took about an hour and a half from start to completion with the bulk of the time dedicated to preparation of the carrots and arranging the carrot sticks into words. The final word count was 7 words long creating the sentence, �I THINK I CAN EAT MY PROJECT.� The end result turned out to be pleasing to the eye, and delicious when eaten.
Permanence
The largest drawback in my writing technology is that it is made up of organic material that will begin to rot and break down quickly in room temperature, with resulting drawbacks including the following: poor odor, bacteria infestation, and lack of object permanence. The finished product will not last more than a week before it begins to really go sour. It would be recommended to display this form of writing technology only briefly and consume shortly thereafter.
Cost
Carrot writing technology is very costly, as one bag of baby carrots cost $1.99, sour cream is $2.99 a container, and tortillas are approximately $1.99 for a six count. Approximately 10 baby carrots were used out of a bag which contained 40 carrots. Approximately one-sixth of a container of sour cream was used to cover one tortilla shell, and one tortilla shell out of six was used to create the final product totaling seven words. Using these exact rates, a 2000 word document fashioned in the same format would cost approximately $450.30. I realize however, that the cost of creating a 2000 word document in this same fashion could become considerably less as I become more familiar with cutting and shaping the carrots into smaller, more managable parts, and using the sour cream sparingly, to achieve the same results, which would help cut costs.
Space
The carrot writing technology requires ample amounts of space needed for display. An average tortilla�s length and width is approximately 12 inches by 12 inches. In order to display a 2000 word document using the carrot writing technology, a room with a perimeter of 68 feet would be required. I don't think it is very practical to use up an entire room for 2000 words, and I realize a little better now why ancient communication such as hieroglyphics carved in stone, took up so much space, as the technology dictates how much space needed to write.
Practicality
Although I was able to write a brief message without using very much time or material, writing with carrot sticks is not a practical means of writing technology for three major reasons. The cost increases as words increase, the use of space is impractical as compared to writing on a single sheet of paper or on a computer, and there is minimal object permanence when using food materials. With these three reasons alone, I consider this technology impractical for further refinement and development.
Conclusion
I have a better appreciation for written communication technologies. Pencils, pens, crayons, word processors, and e-mail, to name a few, are practical tools developed to help make communication easier and available to many. The pen and pencil are marvelous achievements, which are often times overlooked because of how integral they are in society. This assignment was enjoyable overall, although I found myself rushing to create a new writing technology, which caused a considerable amount of stress, but any time a fajita dinner is made, I will remember how far our society has advanced in written communication.
