Stone Soup

The tale of Stone Soup is told in different ways with the same message, two heads are better than one, or in this case, many heads are better than one. It might even explain why and how communities thrive, by relying on each other, using a collective grouping of resources to accomplish a common goal.

In my Design class at UC Davis, we took the stone soup "method" and applied it to design itself to create a stone soup of art. The picture shows our creation in its final stage, but it is the process that I would like to share with you in more detail because creating something, as we all know, is not just about the end product, but about the process which provides substance to any creation.

Our design was not meant to have a deep symbolic importance, but rather just a project that we, as a collective group, could enjoy and experience. We only had a short amount of brainstorming before we went right to it, on our hands and knees trying this piece of twine here and stacking this box there. It was as much fun as it was frustrating, since without a real plan, stability was always an issue, and when something didn't work, we turned around and tried something new by getting a new piece to steady something, to alter it with tape or wire, or simply to throw the idea out and grab something new.

To say the least, it was not what I had expected, because when you work with others, you must always remember that others will have different and often better ideas, and never the less, it is important to always work together, be it in a stone soup project with things you find in your desk drawer, or when remodeling a living room for a customer, or building a new city hall, because what we create, we create within a setting. It is all about design in society.