REFLECTION

During this social practice, I learned to look at social situations within its place and context. In my case, the theme was salt and it’s current excess. By looking at the local, historical and socio-political relationships that are involved in salt, we found out that salt has a rich history of a wide variety of applications. After brainstorming, making mind maps and iceberg models, we discovered that we wanted to work with the rituals and healing aspects of salt-use. We combined this with the current pattern we’re observing in our society: the increasing amount of stressed out people, focusing on students. We used use salt as an important part of our solution to this worrying tendency. By using mapping tools and a wide variety of sources in our research, we were able to understand this complex system in society and environment from different perspectives and on a deeper level. By doing practical research, we got to know multiple projects and brands that are working within this same frame. By experimenting a lot, we tested our final product as a prototype that could work as a solution for stressed-students: a salty-scrub installation, suitable to place at high schools/universities, which gives people the opportunity to calm down and have a pause.