Stone Soup

An interesting activity I participated in last Tuesday, October 5, 2010, was an activity called Stone Soup. This activity was based upon the story called Stone Soup, which was a tale about hungry soldiers that would eat people out of house and home when they took lodgings there. Eventually, the townspeople became afraid of these ravenous soldiers and decided to deny them food. Cleverly, these soldiers designed a way to get everyone in the village to give them some food. They asked for a stone and a pot of water to cook the delicious stone soup, during the preparation they begged each villager if they could give them one ingredient that they had to spare (whether it was a carrot, potatoes, I think you get the idea!). As people began to throw in one ingredient each into the pot, the soup began to smell and taste delicious. Eventually the soup was completed and everyone was able to enjoy stone soup.

While our activity for Stone Soup did not involve food, it was cleverly devised for beginning design students to learn to create, communicate, and have fun by using only the items we brought to class. The plan was to get us to enjoy our work, by not having to think about having a deeper message to our design. It was also to get us to participate in a rare activity that exercised our creativity and test our ability to accept the product of our work.

At the beginning of Stone Soup, we were off to a rough start. No one had an idea as to where to began. I and a few others offered ideas to get us started and without any plans (or drawings) we got to work. Through evolution, trial and failure, we eventually developed an idea that took form by accident.

Process of Stone Soup

As we began to mold our creation an interesting abstracted representation of human beings that began to take shape. Individual ideas were blended into the creation such as adding small details like clothing or facial expressions that gave our stuffed beings life.

Results!

I believed that the lesson learned here was design is sometimes about using the bare materials that you have, understanding the challenges and restrictions, overcoming them by teamwork, appreciating individual ideas, communication, and most importantly having fun.

Signed an amused artist,

Caroline