RESEARCH

IKEBANA
I’ve seen flower arrangements like this before but I just never knew what they were called until now!

But anyway, what exactly is Ikebana?

IKEBANA is a form of Japanese art dealing with arranging flora with specific techniques to create a harmony between nature and humanity.

The Ikebana is made to be able to be viewed in 360°, each ‘side’ having its own look. This particular way of arrangement shows unity of its elements and really shows the harmony of nature and humanity. Unlike the typical flower bouquet and arrangements we mostly see, Ikebana deals with expressiveness through the usage of positioning, implied lines, directions, voids and asymmetry.

Any sort of plant material can be used to construct an Ikebana arrangement – examples such as sprouts, leaves, branches, flowers, etc. That does not limit the materials used to just natural ones. Usually in modernised styles, man-made or non-living materials can be used as well, like stone.

Ikebana bridges the life of nature into the comforts of our human living spaces, linking yet again, nature to man. Spirituality of the Ikebana practice is significant, the sole act of creating has to be meticulous, silence preferred as one puts their entire ‘soul’ into their work, absorbing every moment.

Principles of Ikebana 
There is a set of principles that Ikebana follows, each of them pretty self-explanatory and adhering to these principles allows the best immersion to the craft.

Silence: Relax, be at peace, enjoy the process
Minimalism: ‘Less is more’
Shape & Line: Minimal but effective expression
Form: Discover different forms from different experimentations
Humanity: Expressing human emotions
Aesthetics: Japanese culture
Structure: Basic structure usually a triangle, each point representing Heaven, Earth & Humanity

Styles of Ikebana

Just some interesting styles the plants and all can incorporate!

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TASTE & FOOD
Here’s a short cartoon clip I found that talks about how the tongue works and also it’s relation with taste!

TASTE: Senses that occur on the tongue region, or areas with taste buds including the soft palate.
FLAVOUR: The combination of the received taste and aroma received from the sense of smell.

Just fun biological facts:
Our tongue goes through a few stages of processing before it actually determines that taste and flavour.

ANTICIPATION > SENSORY OVERTURE > SOUND > FLAVOUR CREATION

ANTICIPATION happens when your brain is awaiting and ready to get the taste. Past memories might be triggered, the brain predicting the coming sensation.

SENSORY OVERTURE is the different senses reacting with the approaching food. This includes when you see the colours, shape and texture of the food; the smell that reaches your nose, when the food reacts with the tongue and its taste buds, garnering sensations.

SOUND means when you start chewing, the sounds emanating giving you more information. Your mouth also ‘feels’ the food, is it soft? Hard? Dry? These all contributes.

FLAVOUR CREATION is the fusion of everything that occurs throughout. The brain analyses and goes through all these steps to produce a sense of ‘flavour’.

Let’s briefly breakdown how the different tastes can be perceived as.

SWEET: Pleasant, energising, innocent, rewarding
SOUR: Rancid, strong, salivating, unwanted
BITTER: Medicinal (so in a sense healing?), upsetting, avoidance, uncomfortable
SALTY: Bad if excessive, great if adequate amount, flexible depending on amount
UMAMI: Savoury, enjoyable, enhancing

Depending on what kind of emotion the dish is supposed to evoke, the tastes can be combined and balanced in countless ways to achieve the aspired flavours.

Aside from the taste and flavour of the food, the looks and aesthetics of it has to match the concept or feeling the food has to optimise the charm and attractiveness so people wish to at least try it! However for our Food X Ikebana project, the end product might not exactly be meant for consumption but more of visual appreciation, so our compositions have more freedom, well….kind of!

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SUMMER IDEATION
Once again we drew our seasonal themes randomly, and I got ‘SUMMER‘.

It’s 24/7 summer in Singapore so it was a little challenging trying to portray the ‘speciality’ of summer.

I chose to show the tropical beach life of summer for the final model. Usually when it’s summer time, it’s vacation! What do people do? Go to the beach to relax, bask in the sun, go for a swim, enjoy cooling cocktails at the bars. Even though in summer we get baked from the unrelenting sun, the cold treat of desserts can make us relax in comfort. It’s a pleasant season. Well if Singapore actually had more than 1 season, that is.

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2D ANALYSIS (SKETCH MODELS) 

RED: Dominant
BLUE: Sub-Dominant
GREEN: Subordiante
RED DOTTED: Expand
GREY DOTTED: Rule of Thirds

SKETCH MODEL 1

For this particular model, I decided to use a small SO sphere as the base, a D cone wedged precariously into the sphere, looking like it’s defying gravity. The SD flat cylinder is wedged similarly into about two-thirds along the length of the cone. Each shape is independent. I did not choose this model as the composition doesn’t match the lively, energetic feeling I wanted to portray in the final.

SKETCH MODEL 2

The base for this is a large D sphere, with a small SO cone wedged into the sphere. A long SD cylinder that’s wedged in the cone shows some sense of direction in this model. After consulting, ideally the sphere should be about 2.5 times bigger to really show its presence as a Dominant. The cone is dependent on both the sphere and cylinder. However I didn’t choose this as the final because it was a little lackluster in composition.

SKETCH MODEL 3

A flatter SD cylinder is used here as a supporting base, tilted at an angle. A D long cone has about one-third of it propping against the cylinder base. It points in the opposite direction of the cylinder, creating a zig-zag motion. Then, there’s a SO small sphere wedged into the circular surface of the cone. As a whole, the cone and sphere looks a little like it’s levitating off the base while being only supported by that cylinder base. I chose this model to finalise as I like how it has a zig-zag sense of direction and also how it moves upwards, making the composition feel more ‘alive’.

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FINAL

Here’s the final model!
First I’ll list out the things used:

Dominant: The ‘cocktail’ and branch
Sub-dominant: Pineapple
Subordinate: Cherry tomato

The colour scheme of yellows, blues and pops of red are bright, saturated and excitable, just like the hot days of summer.

Sadly I could not find a suitable palm tree branch to use so I used this random slightly curved branch I found. It imitates the curve of a palm tree on the beach, sheltering over the people on their mats below. The ‘cocktail‘ is made of blue jello and tropical jelly beans were added in it to make it pop more. The blue represents the vast ocean. 

Taste wise, everything edible here is mostly on the sweeter side, with the occasional sour tang of the pineapple and cherry tomato. As how summer is, sweetness depicts the lively energy and the decent amount of sourness is not too much, portraying how after exerting so much energy during summer activities, you get that exhaustion but it’s worth it.

Actually before presenting this during class, the model has festival buntings added as I hoped to further enhance the feeling of festivities (natsu matsuri) and fun times. However it made it feel like there was a bit too much going on, which brought it away from the minimalistic feel of Ikebana. So, I removed the buntings and broke off a part of the branch that was extending away from the curve of the entire length. It helped with the aesthetics and it looks less chaotic from before.