starbucks or star*ucks?

(Recent installation exhibited in December at Event:space gallery, Bethnal Green.)

Mixed media installation; Analogue text, digital animation and video projection.

Coffee outlets provide a privileged space of 'home' away from home. It is the 'third space', homelike but not domicile, selective and branded, specific in style and function. This industry is dominated by Starbucks, who promotes itself as an extension of one's home, providing an environment of comfort and coffee for a social unit. But is its global proliferation and stronghold over the coffee industry posing a threat to the urbanscape, saturating cities with their brand, eliminating diversity and culture? Is their sprawling network of outlets cloning the high streets, diluting identity and commercializing heritage for the sake of economic gain?
We explore 'home' within the Starbucks outlet. Coffee retail is one of the UK's fastest growing industries, and London boasts the second highest density of Starbucks in the world. With their rapid growth for long term dominance, will we eventually find our 'home' and a latte on every street corner?

The design is derived from information in the form of data statistics, online research, interviews, case studies, individual judgments and opinions. Through this knowledge a critique is developed towards the proliferation of the Starbucks model. It is a study which highlights commercial globalization, advertisement propaganda, marketing campaigns and expression of thoughts and sentiments. The individual versus the collective. The people versus Starbucks.
The space becomes a changing region of information, a situation created to negotiate between personal feelings and reality. The walls become a dynamic surface through participation over time. The coffee table, the heart of the coffee lounge, is an object of intervention. It is the interface for which we can govern a virtual condition of the future volume of Starbucks. The installation expands with existing and new material, forming a collection of data from which one draws a personal conclusion.

Concieved and constructed by:
Pavandeep S. Panesar - Kevin Ling - Yumeng Chan
12.05

the setup...


myself pretending to be a disinterested subject...


Interactive coffee table before.
Interactive coffee table after.
The lads.
The aftermath.
Desire for individuality.