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What makes a true GentleHare?
settle disputes not with fists, but the art of mooncake-making.
ABOUT THE HARE COMPANY
We pride ourselves on providing fellow GentleHares quality weapons for conflict resolution.
Not guns or knives, that's so 2018. Introducing GentleHare 3.0, the only wearable Teochew yam mooncake-making studio you'll ever need. You can now make traditional Teochew yam mooncakes beyond the kitchen. Be it on the streets, in town, parks, or shops, you no longer need to turn down a battle of the heritage crafts just because you are restricted to the kitchen.
Not happy with someone? Let's battle and let our art of mooncake-making speak for itself.
Prove your worth to the ignorant challenger, that a GentleHare is not one to be messed with.
Introducing GentleHare 3.0
In the spotlight
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Project-making documentation
Project-making documentation
Documentation
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Participation in practice
When designing for users, it is crucial to participate in the actual practice itself as there is nothing more important than experiencing and understanding their pain points first-hand.
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Thus, to boot, The Hare Company took part in making traditional Teochew yam mooncakes with practitioner David Teo, to understand the cultural practice.
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Documentation of tools
Through participating in the practice, The Hare Company discovered a variety of tools used in the art of traditional Teochew yam mooncake-making.
Introduction of storyworld
In Year 2053, we live in an utopian world where militarism and and weaponry are obsolete. When conflict arises, people settle their differences through a battle of traditional cultural arts and practices. The one who is better at his/her heritage practice wins and get things to go his/her way. Seeing an opportunity for consumerism, a capitalist company, called The Hare Company, developed a wearable studio and tools, called GentleHare 3.0, for making traditional Teochew yam mooncakes on the go. GentleHare was an instant hit among the Teochew mooncake-making gangs and sold like hot cakes.
Sociological issue:
Keeping traditions alive in Singapore
In an article published by The New Paper in 2016, Mr Lawrence Lim, the owner of a traditional Teochew pastry shop in Singapore, said that the younger generation don’t follow traditions, unlike the older generation who have more of the human touch. As a result, the industry needs all the help it can get to keep all these traditions alive.
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In our utopian storyworld, cultural practices are omnipotent and preserved as people strive to improve their practices in order to win battles and get things to go their way.
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GentleHare 3.0 revives the art of traditional Teochew yam mooncake-making by allowing people to make mooncakes on the go, making the art a powerful tool for conflict resolution.
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Technological development:
Wearable thermoelectric generators
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a new design for harvesting body heat and converting it into electricity for use in wearable electronics.
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GentleHare 3.0 uses this technology
to allow people to deep fry yam mooncakes on the go beyond the kitchen. Instead of deep frying the conventional way using oil and stove fire, our design harvests human body heat rapidly via sensors attached to the torso. This heat is then transmitted to the stove gloves via wires. Users can deep fry a mooncake by wrapping it in aluminium foil and holding the wrapped mooncake with the gloves.
Old worksite vs new worksites
The conventional worksite for mooncake-making is the bakery or kitchen. GentleHare 3.0 makes mooncake-making possible in new worksites like the streets, parks, tunnels, MRTs, carparks, and shops. In sum, new worksites are anywhere with a possibility of conflict(s) arising between and among humans.
Clash of the cultural arts gangs
In our storyworld, the society is divided into many cultural arts gangs who share best practices of cultural arts among themselves. Some examples of cultural arts include Teochew yam mooncake-making, Indian spice mixing, Peranakan kuih-making, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting, Batik painting, Thai silk hand-weaving, Indian jewellery-making, and Wau Bulan-making.
Design concept rationale
There are a few rationale for focusing on revolutionising the deep frying process in our design concept.
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First, in order to make the wearable kitchen mobile, the deep frying process has to be addressed. Among all the steps required to make a Teochew yam mooncake, deep frying the conventional way using a kitchen stove and oil is the most immobile.
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Second, as our design helps to solve the sociological issue of keeping traditions alive, it would go against the purpose if the whole mooncake-making process is replaced by technology. Hence, for the steps that require technique and mastery, such as making the dough and shaping the mooncake, we kept the steps to its true original essence – handmade. As there are no special technique for deep frying a Teochew yam mooncake, the deep frying process can be replaced with an alternative method using the existing technology of wearable thermoelectric generators.
Sketches of design concept
Design reiterations
Exhibition
The Hare Company had an exhibition at University Town in the National University of Singapore. Many aspiring Teochew yam mooncake-makers visited us to try GentleHare 3.0. Besides The Hare Company, other companies had interesting and really cool wearables to offer as well. In the future, The Hare Company could collaborate with some of them to bring GentleHare 3.0 to greater heights.
Project-making documentation